News

Freedom Industries is set to answer to a pollution charge stemming from last year’s chemical spill into a river in Charleston.

Federal prosecutors say the company is expected to plead guilty at a court hearing Monday in Charleston.

Two former Freedom owners and two lower-level employees pleaded guilty to a pollution charge last week and will be sentenced in June.

The spill of thousands of gallons of a coal-cleaning agent into the Elk River went into West Virginia American Water’s intake 2 miles downstream on Jan. 9, 2014. It prompted a tap water ban for 300,000 residents for days.

Another former Freedom owner, Dennis Farrell, and former President Gary Southern face trial later this year on charges related to the spill. In addition, Southern faces charges related to Freedom’s bankruptcy.