TOM HINDMAN/GETTY IMAGES
Enter
many of the liability lawsuits.” For
its part, American Water Works
has responded to this accusation by insisting that Freedom’s
game here is nothing more than
an attempt to maintain its grip on
“those parts of the business that
it deems valuable, abandoning
the rest, taking the going concern
value from the debtor, and leaving
the debtor and its many creditors
‘holding the bag.’”
That sounds about right,
actually!
Bankruptcy protection turns
out to be just one way Freedom
Industries is sheltering itself. As
the Charleston Gazette reported,
the “company told investigators that the Crude MCHM that
leaked also contained a product
LOOKING FORWARD
IN ANGST
called ‘PPH,’ according to state
and federal officials.” And what is
PPH, exactly? Does the acronym
for this special bonus poison in
the water stand for “Pretty Potentially Harmless” or “Probably
Poisonous Hell?” Well, here’s
where we find ourselves in one
of those “those would say don’t
know and those who might know
won’t say” situations:
Freedom Industries disclosed
the information to state and
federal regulators on Tuesday
morning, but health impacts of
the chemical remain unclear,
and Freedom Industries has
claimed the exact identify of
the substance is “proprietary.”
The good news, I guess, is that
the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention has said that the
HUFFINGTON
02.02.14
Shelves at
supermarket
chain Kroger
remain empty
after running
out of water
in Charleston
on Jan. 10.
An unknown
amount
Crude MCHM
contaminated
the public
water system
for potentially
300,000
people in
the state.