FORT SMITH — Fort Smith city directors are being asked to prohibit groundwater well drilling on and around the former Whirlpool Corp. plant site to eliminate the chance of human exposure to a solvent Whirlpool let seep into the ground decades ago.
Robert Jones III, a Fayetteville attorney representing Whirlpool, which closed the plant last June, told directors Tuesday during a study session that the regulated degreaser trichloroethylene, also called TCE, has seeped into a residential area north of the Whirlpool property at 6400 Jenny Lind Road and has contaminated soil under parts of the neighborhood of about 35 homes. A map of the contamination “plume” by environmental consultant Environ showed 18 properties had contamination beneath them.
Jones pointed out that all the households in the neighborhood are on city water and have no need for wells. He said there were no wells within a mile of the site.
The contamination has leached 7 feet under the surface, he said.
The only way the chemical could harm humans is if it is ingested, so the ordinance Whirlpool has asked the directors to pass would elimi-nate the chance people would drink the contaminated water, Jones said.
Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality spokesman Katherine Benenati also said Tuesday that the chemical is not a hazard unless the contaminated water is ingested.
According to the federal Environmental Protection Agency, individuals who drink water contaminated with trichloroethylene over many years could experience problems with their liver and may have an increased risk of cancer.
Jones furnished documents to the directors that stated Whirlpool used trichloroethylene to clean refrigerator parts before assembly from about 1967 to 1981.
Greg Gillespie with Little Rock-based Environ told the directors that Whirlpool had no records of spills that would account for the contamination of the soil. He said it’s theorized that the chemical got into the soil gradually through careless use of the chemical.
He also said the chemical seeped northward under the ground from the Whirlpool property into the neighborhood, but monitoring wells show it has not moved farther. Whirlpool officials continue to monitor the wells even though the plant is shut down.
Benenati said the highest concentration of trichloroethylene found in the contaminated area was 29,000 parts per billion. The state standard, she said, is 5 parts per billion.
Jones said that Whirlpool reported the contamination tothe Environmental Quality Department in 2000 when it first detected the chemical in the groundwater. It signed a letter of agreement with the agency in 2002 to clean up the chemical.
Its efforts proved unsuccessful, Jones said.
First, Whirlpool tried in 2010 to pump out the chemical but the soil was too dense to draw it out, Jones said.
The company also tried to chemically treat the solvent to neutralize it but that also didn’t work because of the soil’s density, he said. A date for that remedy wasn’t available Tuesday.
Benenati said Whirlpool had no other measure planned to try to clean up the site but was relying on the chemical to dissipate over time. She said the agency has requested that Whirlpool come up with a backup plan or alternative remedy and that the company was looking into it.
Jones said that he, a Whirlpool representative and officials with Environ held a meeting Jan. 10 with residents of the neighborhood, of which five property owners attended.
In a summary of the meeting provided to the directors, residents complained that the contamination would reduce their property values and could be hazardous to their health.
One resident of the neighborhood stated that she that had four otherwise healthy dogs that died, and she didn’t want her grandchildren playing in her backyard for fear of the contamination.
Residents who asked about the effects of trichloroethylene were told exposure to levels greater than those at the site were dizziness, drowsiness and rash, according to the summary.
Another property owner in the neighborhood, Jerome Flusche, has written to the city asking the directors not to pass the ordinance.
In his letter, dated Jan. 10, Flusche stated that the contamination will hurt his property value and that Whirlpool should correct the problem rather than ask the city to banwell drilling.
Jones told the directors that residents who believed their property values would be affected by the contamination could take the complaints to Whirlpool and the company would respond to them on a case-by-case basis.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 02/13/2013