Massey And Rawl Sales Settle Lawsuit

{West Virginia}...Early Wednesday morning, Massey Energy and subsidiary Rawl Sales & Processing settled a 7-year-old lawsuit with hundreds of southern West Virginia residents who say the companies' coal slurry disposal practices poisoned their drinking water. Circuit Judge Alan Moats and Circuit Judge Derek Swope had been trying to settle the case as three other judges prepared for a long trial that was set to start August 1st. Some 700 people sued over water supplies they say were ruined by 1.4 billion gallons of slurry pumped into worked-out underground mines. All parties remain under a gag order.