Massey Makes $35 Million Offer

{West Virginia}...Massey Energy Co. has offered $35 million to settle a lawsuit with hundreds of southern West Virginia residents who say the company poisoned their drinking water with coal slurry. The settlement proposed on July 27th says the $35 million is in addition to $5 million that Massey and subsidiary Rawl Sales & Processing had previously agreed to put into a medical monitoring fund. Initially, some 700 people sued Massey, claiming the company contaminated their aquifer and wells by pumping 1.4 billion gallons of toxic coal slurry into worked-out underground mines between 1978 and 1987. A hearing on the settlement and its distribution is set for September 29th in Charleston.