Another batch of settlement checks for people affected by the 2014 Kanawha Valley water crisis are going in the mail.
On Monday, lawyers for businesses and residents affected by the crisis asked that the portion of the Initial Contingent Fund Contribution for uncontested Individual Review Option claims be approved.
In an order Wednesday evening, U.S. District Judge John Copenhaver approved the distribution of 1,524 individual review option claims totaling $2,885,151.
Of the 1,524 claims, 1,154 are pregnancy individual review claims.
There were 362 wage earner individual review claims, seven residential individual review claims and one business individual review claim.
Those people will receive their checks in seven days, said Anthony Majestro, a lawyer for the residents affected by the 2014 chemical spill.
The class-action lawsuit stemmed from the Kanawha Valley water crisis, which contaminated water for about 300,000 West Virginians.
The lawsuit said West Virginia American Water didn’t react properly to the Crude MCHM, which spilled from a storage tank at Freedom Industries into the Elk River in 2014.
The lawsuit doesn’t directly involve Freedom Industries, but says Eastman Chemical didn’t do enough to warn Freedom Industries of the chemical’s danger.
The next round of checks will include government claims, business claims and medical claims, Majestro said.