Appalachia

The Charleston Gazette
Thursday, November 13, 2014
DEP reaches new deal over Freedom Industries site
By Ken Ward Jr., Staff writer

State regulators are proposing a new agreement with Freedom Industries that the bankrupt company hopes will pave the way for it to enter a “voluntary” toxic cleanup program, a move that could reduce the amount of contaminated material they have to remove from the site of January’s Elk River chemical spill.

The state Department of Environmental Protection on Thursday morning released a copy of its new seven-page consent order worked out between Freedom officials and the DEP’s Division of Water and Waste Management. The deal is subject to a public comment period before final approval by DEP.

Under the agreement, the DEP would lift the terms of previous enforcement orders that would require Freedom Industries to cleanup and remove “all” contaminated soil and groundwater” from its Etowah Terminal site, located just 1.5 miles upstream from the West Virginia American Water Company regional drinking water intake.

Freedom would then be eligible to apply for the DEP’s Voluntary Remediation Program. If accepted into that program, the company could use a “risk-based” approach that Freedom officials hope reduce the amount of contamination they would have to dig up and remove from the site....

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