Lawyers for Kanawha Valley residents, West Virginia American Water and Eastman Chemical are said to be close to finalizing and making public for the first time the details of a $151 million settlement of the class-action case over the January 2014 regional water crisis, a federal judge said late Friday afternoon.
U.S. District Judge John T. Copenhaver Jr. said in a one-page order that the parties had informed him they "have reached virtual agreement" on the details of the proposed settlement.
Copenhaver ordered the parties to file the proposed settlement documents - which would detail, for example, exactly how the money would be distributed to hundreds of thousands of area residents and businesses - on or before Thursday.
The judge again rescheduled a trial in the case, currently set to start Tuesday, until June 6. The move is mostly a formality, because no trial is expected in the case, unless the settlement were to fall apart. There's been no indication that is likely to happen.
Copenhaver entered his order following another in a long series of closed-door meetings that the judge has held with lawyers in the case in the six months since a tentative settlement was reached and broad terms of the related agreements with West Virginia American and Eastman were made public.
Under the deals, West Virginia American would pay up to $126 million and Eastman up to $25 million to residents, businesses, and workers who were unable to use their tap water during the "do not use" order period that followed the contamination of the region's Elk River water supply by a spill of Crude MCHM and other chemicals from the Freedom Industries facility just 1.5 miles upstream from the water company intake.
Lawyers for residents and businesses allege that West Virginia American did not adequately prepare for or respond to the spill and that MCHM-maker Eastman did not properly warn Freedom of the dangers of its chemical or take any action when Eastman officials learned that the Freedom facility was in disrepair.
Under federal court rules, once the settlement documents are filed, the judge will determine whether to preliminary approve the deal, a move that would then trigger public notice of the terms and the ability for residents to object or opt-out of the settlement. Details of how victims of the spill can file claims to receive payments under the settlement will be made public as part of that process.