That Commie Liberal Rag Bloomberg Business Week must just hate America and those freedom loving corporations running the country and making us great.
They have a report up on the hot line phone call from Freedom Industries reporting the chemical spill.
And it is a gold mine for the looming negligence lawsuits and investigations.
The remarkably laconic late-morning phone conversation between a company representative and a hotline operator named Laverne reveals Freedom Industries minimizing the extent of the spill and making several flat-out misstatements about what’s transpiring. It’s safe to predict that this tape will become Exhibit A in pending civil litigation accusing Freedom of negligence and in any potential criminal charges related to the spill. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charleston has said that it has launched a wide-ranging probe of the incident. Freedom Industries and its executives have denied any wrongdoing.
The caller from Freedom Industries, identifying himself as Bob Reynolds, says on the audio tape that the substance being released isn’t toxic or hazardous and isn’t escaping into the Elk River. A containment wall has blocked the spill from spreading, he adds. Both statements were incorrect.
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Moreover, state Department of Environmental Protection inspectors, who had already arrived at the Freedom site by the time Reynolds called the spill hotline, later said they quickly discovered a 4-foot-wide stream of MCHM seeping through a cracked containment wall and into the adjacent river. In a subsequent court hearing, evidence was introduced showing that before the spill, Freedom’s management had set aside $1 million to repair the wall but the work hadn’t been started.
One of the more disturbing moments on the audio tape occurs when Laverne asks Reynolds for the full name of the chemical that’s escaping. He has to look it up. It’s 4-methylcyclohexane methanol. Laverne and Bob share a casual chuckle over their mutual ignorance. Hahaha: That feeling is the hair on the back of your neck standing up.
Freedom Industries Calling: New Tape Reveals False Statements During Chemical Spill