Settlement reached in lawsuit over chemical spill into West Virginia creek

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A $500,000 settlement has been reached in a lawsuit over truck crash that sent a chemical into a West Virginia creek, according to a published report.

The Kanawha County Commission will get half of that and will decide how to spend it in future meetings, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reported. Commissioner Lance Wheeler said part of the total will go toward recouping taxpayer costs of litigation and testing.

The county sued a trucking company and the driver over the spill last year that dumped 3,000 gallons of the material into a tributary of Paint Creek, killing more than 30,000 fish. The chemical involved is a compound commonly used in cleaning detergents. The spill occurred on the West Virginia Turnpike near Pax.

The commission plans to continue to test to make sure all the chemical is gone from the area, Wheeler said.