What has seemed inevitable for weeks was made official today: Freedom Industries will soon be finished as a company.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- What has seemed inevitable for weeks was made official today: Freedom Industries will soon be finished as a company.

Mark Freedlander, a lawyer representing Freedom, told U.S. Bankruptcy Court Friday morning that the company responsible for contaminating the water of 300,000 West Virginians will wind up its affairs -- including environmental remediation -- and then begin sending all its customers to its former competitors.

That will happen "sooner rather than later," Freedlander said.

All of Freedom's remaining chemical inventory will be sold in a matter of days, he said.

"It just became apparent in relatively short order," Freedlander said, "that it was not practical or financially viable" to continue operating the company.

Freedom was represented at Friday's bankruptcy hearing only by its lawyers. No company executives attended.

In a news release issued after the hearing, Gary Southern, Freedom's president, said that selling the company's inventory and shifting its business to competitors "represents Freedom's best opportunity to generate funds it needs for our environmental remediation efforts."

Southern said the company would do its best to help its employees find jobs with competitors, although job losses were inevitable.

In late January, Freedom agreed to an order from the state Department of Environmental Protection to begin tearing down its facility on the Elk River by March 15.

Read the original:

Freedom Industries to shut down sooner rather than later