When it comes to iniquitous behavior by companies who despoil the environment, there’s some pretty stiff competition. From the long-ago tactics of Exxon in the Exxon Valdez days to the more recent examples of BP or the Tennessee Valley Authority, there are plenty of not-so-shining examples of corporations putting profits over people.

Recent events, however, make it clear that Freedom Industries means to be a contender.

The company earlier this month purportedly allowed about 7,500 gallons of a chemical known as “crude MCHM” to leach unchecked (and unreported) into the water supply for about 300,000 West Virginians. Then, even as some remained without water, the company filed for bankruptcy—a move that effectively puts a hold on liability suits filed against it. For the grand finale (so far), the company shocked regulators by waiting two weeks to disclose that a second chemical, PPH, was present in the spill.

“The good news is that the experts think—maybe—the second chemical wasn’t any more dangerous than the first,” writes Paul M. Barrett in an editorial in Bloomsberg Businessweek. “The bad news is the belated revelation reaffirms that the company behind the spill is truly out of control.”

The timeline on when the careening began is a little sketchy. According to the New York Times, the company claimed it located the initial leak at about 10:30 a.m. on January 9 and began clean up. The Environmental Protection Agency, however, said it was their inspectors who located a hole in a holding tank at 11:10 a.m. that day after receiving complaints of a strong odor from residents. The chemical had spilled from the tank into a containment area and seeped into the Elk River. No clean up was underway at that time, inspectors said.

Five days after the spill, authorities were still working to restore water to residents while the company played down the toxicity of the chemical (which is little understood) and the extent of the leak, according to the Washington Post. About 10 people were admitted to the hospital due to ingesting water tainted with the chemical, which can cause headaches, eye and skin irritation, and difficulty breathing, the Post reported.

More than week after the spill, as water was finally being restored to the last of the affected residents, Freedom filed what U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Ronald Pearson called the “one of the most unique Chapter 11 cases I've ever seen,” the Charleston Gazette reports.

The bankruptcy filing and a subsequent emergency motion for “debtor-in-possession” financing (DIP) will allow Freedom to borrow up to $4 million to pay debts and continue operations. It also puts 28 lawsuits currently filed against the company on hold. The workings of the case are labyrinthine and slightly suspect, including the two lenders who would provide the financing. According to the Gazette, both financing companies were incorporated the day before Freedom’s filing and can be tied to Clifford Forrest, the owner of Chemstream Holdings, Freedom Industries' parent company.

The West Virginia American Water Co., which operates the infrastructure infiltrated by the spill, unsuccessfully asked the judge to deny Freedom’s DIP financing, stating that it “reeks of collusion,” and was a “loan to own scheme,” the Gazette reports.

"The terms of the DIP facility would provide the lender with a lien on all of the Debtor's assets, a superiority claim, and the ability to foreclose selectively on the assets and take away the most valuable assets from the Debtor's estate, leaving behind only the toxic facilities and huge damage claims caused by the Freedom spill," the water company's filing states.

It’s unclear what those huge damage claims might look like, especially after Freedom’s revelation this week that there was second, undisclosed chemical lurking in the leaky tanks.

State officials were dumbfounded Tuesday to learn that Freedom had withheld the presence of the second chemical—called PPH—and continued to withhold information on it, based on the fact that it was a propriety formula. Representatives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention didn’t suspect the 300 gallons of PPH that Freedom estimated was spilled would cause health problems, but they couldn’t be sure without more information on the composition.

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection was forced to issue an order the following day demanding the complete disclosure of any and all chemicals released into Elk River, according to the Gazette.

"Having this revelation so late in the game is completely unacceptable,” DEP Secretary Randy Huffman told the Gazette. “Having to order them to provide such obvious information is indicative of the continued decline of their credibility.”

Indeed, anyone following the issue closely is likely to wonder what new hubris the company will roll out next. Until then, though, there’s some hope that the egregiousness of the situation might start changing some of the state’s long held anti-regulatory opinions.

“I am thankful that my husband had a job for 32 years, one that could pay our bills and feed our family,” Cindy Harrah-Cox, whose husband was a coal miner, told the New York Times. “[But] at what cost? Dying young? The air and water is killing us? Is it worth all that?”