Source: http://swtimes.com, February 22, 2016
By: Chad Hunter
Whirlpool’s annual report to the state indicates that contamination cleanup efforts in and around the company’s shuttered Fort Smith plant reduced toxic concentration levels between 53 percent to 83 percent in targeted areas.
A portion of Whirlpool Corp.’s sprawling property on Jenny Lind Road has been contaminated with trichloroethylene, or TCE, since the late 1980s when it was discovered in groundwater after the removal of an underground fuel storage tank, according to Whirlpool’s environmental consulting firm, Ramboll Environ. The toxic chemical was discovered underneath a nearby neighborhood in 2001.
In Whirlpool’s 2015 report to the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, company spokesman Jeff Noel notes that remediation activities included chemical injections and continued monitoring of soil, groundwater and vapors. The report cites “two years of success and progress in Fort Smith.”
“Importantly, there were no findings that changed the conclusion that there remains no health risk to Fort Smith residents from exposure to TCE in the groundwater beneath or near the Whirlpool property,” Noel wrote in a report summary.
TCE was used at the Fort Smith plant as an industrial solvent beginning in the late 1960s, according to Whirlpool. Whirlpool says it stopped using TCE in the early 1980s when it was deemed harmful. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, people who drink water containing TCE well in excess of the maximum contaminant level for many years could experience problems with their liver and may have an increased risk of getting cancer.
Whirlpool closed its Fort Smith plant in June 2012, but had been working with the ADEQ for more than a decade regarding the contamination. Whirlpool was given the nod in December 2013 for a cleanup plan, called a Remedial Action Decision Document or RADD, to address the TCE. Since early 2014, TCE countermeasures have included treatment of contaminated groundwater with a chemical oxidant and removal of toxic soil.
“The remediation efforts have resulted in reductions of TCE concentrations of 83 percent in certain targeted areas and 53 percent in the source area,” Noel wrote, “and have created and increased the separation of the north and south plume.”
The northern “plume” of contamination includes a residential neighborhood with about two dozen properties between Brazil and Ingersoll avenues. In 2015, a settlement was reached with plaintiffs whose property north of the plant was devalued by the contamination. Settlement terms called for Whirlpool to pay affected owners the amount by which each property was devalued according to the Sebastian County tax assessor, plus 33 percent.
“As a result of these agreements, the environmental class action lawsuit and most individual lawsuits against Whirlpool were dismissed,” Noel wrote.
The southern swath of TCE on Whirlpool property shows “predominantly stable to decreasing” toxic trends for 31 of 35 wells, according to the company. The northern contamination area reflects the same trend with 36 of 42 wells. “These stable and decreasing TCE concentration trends demonstrate that natural attenuation processes are naturally addressing the groundwater impacts at the site,” Noel wrote.