FORT SMITH - The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality on Friday laid out the steps that Whirlpool Corp. must take to take to address the contamination on its closed Fort Smith plant site and an adjoining residential neighborhood.
The agency’s Remedial Action Decision Document requires Whirlpool to seal off the surface of the area of contaminated soils and to use a chemical oxidant to neutralize the trichloroethylene that seeped into the soil and groundwater under a portion of the plant. The plan allows the contamination under the neighborhood, where residents have seen their property values plummet, to decompose naturally.
The concluding declaration in the decision document signed by Tammie J. Hynum, chief of the agency’s Hazardous Waste Division, states:
“ADEQ believes that the remedy set forth in the RADD for the Whirlpool Corporation in Fort Smith, Arkansas, is appropriate, technically feasible, reliable and cost effective. With respect to risk management decisions made by ADEQ , this remedy is deemed acceptable, and to be protective of human health and the environment.”
Fort Smith City Administrator Ray Gosack declined to comment on the department’s decision document Friday, saying he only received it late Friday afternoon and did not have a chance to read through the approximately 80 pages.
Spokesmen for Whirlpool did not respond to requests for comment Friday afternoon.
Company spokesman Jeff Noel said Monday that in anticipation of the department’s ruling, the company’s environmental consulting firm, Environ International Corp. in Little Rock, has been taking soil samples and surveying the ground to prepare for tests prior to injecting the as-yet-undetermined oxidizing agent into the ground.
The company has 30 days from Friday’s document signing to submit its final action plan to the agency. Noel said it could take a year to 18 months to begin the full-scale treatment to neutralize the trichloroethylene in the soil and groundwater.
The agency stated in the decision document that if the selected remedy does not show “significant reduction” in the level of contaminants on the Whirlpool property in two years, the company must submit an alternate plan for consideration.
The document containscomments made during a Nov. 12 public hearing in Fort Smith on the proposed plan along with the agency’s responses.
Among the comments were that residents of the neighborhood expected the department to force Whirlpool to clean up the contamination to allay their fears over their health and to restore their property values. They questioned whether those expectations would be met.
Two city directors spoke at the hearing: Kevin Settle and Pam Weber.
Settle said he disagreed with the proposed remedy,saying the plan did not address how to make whole the neighborhood residents whose properties were devalued by the contamination.
Weber said she didn’t believe the agency gave as much consideration to the neighborhood residents as it did to Whirlpool.
“You say you don’t have the power to help with their property? Of course you do,” Weber said. “You have to do what’s right for these property owners, and the opinion of myself and most of these property owners, you have chosen the cheapest route for Whirlpool.”
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 13 on 12/28/2013