Whirlpool: Start on neutralizing plant a year off

Action plan still in the works

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

— Whirlpool Corp. anticipates it taking a year to 18 months to begin the treatment to neutralize a hazardous chemical under its closed Fort Smith plant and to implement other remedies once the state approves a cleanup plan.

Whirlpool spokesman Jeff Noel said Monday that the company’s environmental consulting firm, Environ in Little Rock, will have 30 days after the signing of a Remedial Action Decision Document by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality to submit a final action plan to the agency.

Last week, Environ workers were at the plant, which closed in June 2012, taking core and soil samples and conducting surveys to determine where to inject the as-yet-undetermined oxidizing agent into the contaminated groundwater to neutralize the plume of trichloroethylene.

“I’d say in six months, we’ll be out there doing preliminary injections, and then we’ll come back in six months to a year after that to make what I call the major attack injection,” Noel said.

He also said it could be two to three years before there is any measurable progress on the oxidant’s effectiveness in reducing the trichloroethylene concentration.

Department officials have said all year that the decision document would be signed by the end of the year, which is next week. An email Monday from department spokesman Katherine Benenati did not provide a more specific date.

“We are doing a final review and looking over all the comments received,” she wrote. “The time frame is still the same, we expect to have it signed by the end of the year.”

The department received the public comments from a Nov. 12 hearing in Fort Smith over Whirlpool’s proposed plan to clean up the trichloroethylene from under part of its plant and from the neighborhood north of the plant. The chemical migrated from the plant property into the groundwater under the neighborhood over the past 30 years. Residents of the neighborhood first learned of the contamination in January.

Noel said he met Monday with Fort Smith City Administrator Ray Gosack and Deputy Administrator Jeff Dingman over what will happen once the decision document is signed.

Gosack said Monday that so far Whirlpool has only a plan.

“We’ll see the guts of it in the next several weeks,” he said, adding that the company has not identified the chemical it plans to use or how long it will take to eliminate the trichloroethylene.

Gosack said he asked Noel to have Whirlpool and Environ submit executive summaries with their reports that would provide material easier for officials and the public to understand.

In its plan, Whirlpool proposes treating the chemical under the ground at the plant and at two small areas on the southern edge of the neighborhood with an oxidizing agent to neutralize the chemical. The company also plans to cap the ground over the polluted area on its property with asphalt to eliminate access to the tainted ground and to prevent water from seeping in.

Most of the oxidation treatment will be on the northwest corner of the plant where Whirlpool used the trichloroethylene from 1967-81 to clean metal refrigerator parts before assembly.

Another treatment site will be a strip of ground on the north side of Ingersoll Avenue, which separates the plant from the neighborhood, where the trichloroethylene plume is at its narrowest. The company’s cleanup plan said treatment of the trichloroethylene there will halt seepage of the chemical into the neighborhood and allow thetrichloroethylene under the neighborhood to decompose faster.

Noel said the state’s decision document, if signed as proposed, also will require the company to put institutional controls in place. They include deed restrictions on where digging can be done on-site and the asphalt cap over the contaminated ground.

Whirlpool has been talking with several developers about purchase of the property, Noel said. He said talks with one prospect, in particular, have become very detailed. Having a decision document in place will clarify for potential purchasers the true condition of the property and allow purchase negotiations to proceed.

The Whirlpool cleanup plan for the neighborhood is to allow the chemical to decompose naturally. Bob Bocock, an environmental investigator working with environmental activist Erin Brockovich, said earlier this year that it could take more than 100 years for the chemical to decompose on its own.

Company and Environmental Quality Departmentofficials have said the trichloroethylene in the groundwater is not a health hazard for the neighborhood as long as residents don’t come in contact with the contaminated water.

Noel also said the company has been given access to private property in the neighborhood to conduct vapor testing that city officials requested this year to determine whether intrusion of vapor from the trichloroethylene to the surface is occurring. Whirlpool officials have said they believe that vapor intrusion is not occurring because of the density of the soil over the contaminated groundwater.

Whirlpool representatives petitioned the city directors earlier this year to pass an ordinance banning the drilling of water wells in the neighborhood to restrict access to the contaminated groundwater.

The directors rejected the ordinance, instead calling on Whirlpool and the Environmental Quality Department to work as expeditiously as possible to clean up the contamination.

Asked whether Whirlpoolplanned to apply to the city again for a well-drilling ban, Noel said the company will seek to get some groundwater-access restrictions through its attorneys working with attorneys representing residents and property owners in the neighborhood who are suing Whirlpool in federal court.

One lawsuit represents several owners of property in the neighborhood. The other seeks class-action status for the neighborhood residents.

The lawsuits say that Whirlpool trichloroethylene contamination constitutes trespassing, a nuisance and negligence, and violates the Arkansas Solid Waste Management Act.

A trial on the lawsuits has been scheduled for November, but the attorneys representing the neighborhood property owners and residents have asked the judge to return the lawsuits to Sebastian County Circuit Court where they were first filed. A ruling on the request is pending.

The contamination prompted Sebastian County Assessor Becky Yandell in May to lower the value of 75 properties in that area, some by as much as 75 percent.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 12/25/2013