Work together, says Fort Smith

FORT SMITH - Fort Smith city directors passed a resolution Tuesday calling on Whirlpool Corp. and the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality to work “jointly and diligently to pursue immediate remediation” of the hazardous chemical in the groundwater of a neighborhood that lies just north of the closed refrigerator plant.

The directors first called for the resolution last week after rejecting an ordinance proposed by Whirlpool representatives to ban the drilling of water wells in the Jacobs and Brazil avenues neighborhood to eliminate access to the groundwater the company contaminated with trichloroethylene at least two decades ago.

On a motion by Director Mike Lorenz, the directors amended the resolution to add a requirement that Whirlpool and the state environmental quality department submit quarterly reports to the board of directors on progress of the remediation efforts. He said he suggested the amendment given what he called Whirlpool’s poor record of communicating about the contamination.

After the vote, Mayor Sandy Sanders said he will send copies of the resolution to Gov. Mike Beebe; Whirlpool’s chairman; Whirlpool spokesman Jeff Noel, who addressed the board of directors last week; the director of the state environmental quality department; and the chairman of the Pollution Control and Ecology Commission.

Director Kevin Settle also called for sending copies of the resolution signed by city directors to federal and state legislators.

Fort Smith City Administrator Ray Gosack said he e-mailed a request to environmental quality department Deputy Director Ryan Benefield Tuesday asking the agency to conduct vapor testing for trichloroethylene in the affected neighborhood. Benefield told city directors last week that computer modeling showed vapor intrusion by the chemical was not an issue given the soil and other conditions. But, Gosack said no actual testing had been done.

Whirlpool has said the contamination is confined to the groundwater and that clay soil prevents vapors from the chemical from reaching the surface.

Gosack said he received a reply from Benefield on Tuesday saying the agency would consult with Whirlpool about whether testing should be done.

Noel did not return calls to his cell phone or his office phone in Benton Harbor, Mich., asking for comment on the city directors action Tuesday evening.

Directors expressed disappointment last week that after a decade of testing and reports to the department, Whirlpool has gotten no closer to resolving the contamination than it had when it reported the contamination to the department in 2001.

The directors also were angry that Whirlpool did not notify residents in the 35 households affected by the contamination until January.

A portion of the resolution reads that the city directors “expect continuous effort and effective communication from both Whirlpool and ADEQ as appropriate to keep the general public apprised of the progress and status of all efforts to remediate this Emergency Situation.”

Benefield told directors last week that Whirlpool is scheduled to submit a revised risk management plan to the department by Monday that will propose how it plans to clean up the contamination. He said if the plan is approved, work on an implementation plan would begin by the end of the year.

Noel told directors - and neighborhood residents in a hand-delivered letter - that the company takes responsibility for the contamination. And even though the plant closed in June, Whirlpool will remain in the community until the contamination is cleaned up, he said in the letter last week.

Trichlorothylene is a degreaser Whirlpool used to clean metal parts before assembly from 1967 until 1985. Soil tests showed the chemical in the groundwater in 1989 after removal of an underground storage tank that held another substance. In 2001, Whirlpool notified the environmental quality department that the chemical in the groundwater had migrated into the neighborhood north of the plant.

Since then, Whirlpool has sunk 70 wells on its property and in the neighborhood to monitor the strength and location of the chemical. Tests from wells in the neighborhood show levels of the chemical exceeds state standards, according to the environmental quality department.

After years of monitoring and sending reports to the department, Whirlpool attempted from 2009 to 2011 to neutralize the trichloroethylene in the soil but those attempts have failed.

The company then proposed to have the city directors pass the ordinance banning well drilling, which the company said was a precaution while other remediation methods were explored.

Residents of the affected neighborhood claim the company’s notification of the proposed ordinance in January was the first time they learned of the contaminated groundwater.