FORT SMITH -- A consultant for the Whirlpool Corp. says it has discovered an area of highly contaminated soil at the northwest corner of the closed plant and proposes to remove it, according to a letter from the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality.
The area of "highly impacted soil" 25-30 feet deep was discovered in soil samples that Environ International gathered in December and January and analyzed in February and March as part of a plan to neutralize a large pool of trichloroethylene under a corner of the Whirlpool property in south Fort Smith. The plant closed in June 2012.
Environ made the disclosure to the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality in a conference call, according to a letter dated Monday from Technical Branch Manager Jay Rich in the department's Hazard Waste Division to Robert Karwowski, Whirlpool's director of Environmental, Health and Safety.
"In general terms, Environ's plan is to remove this highly impacted area of soil contamination," Rich's letter said.
The plan to remove the contaminated soil is a departure from the current strategy that the state approved for Whirlpool to use to treat the trichloroethylene in the ground under the Whirlpool property. Environ has begun pumping an oxidizing chemical into the ground at several points in three locations on Whirlpool property to neutralize the hazardous trichloroethylene.
Rich's letter to Karwowski did not provide details on the size of the highly contaminated area, the intensity of the contamination or why Environ wanted to remove rather than treat the soil. It offered no indication on how much soil may be removed.
Spokesman Katherine Benenati said in an email Tuesday that the department was waiting for a response from Whirlpool before any dates on action could be determined. She added that discoveries like that made by Environ are not unusual.
Whirlpool did not respond Tuesday to an email from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette seeking more details on the contaminated soil and measures to deal with it.
The letter from Rich stated that because remediation work has already begun, Whirlpool would have 15 days to submit a soil investigation work plan for the newly discovered soil contamination. The plan is to include locations for soil sample borings, their depths and protocols for testing the samples.
If the analysis of the samples confirms the earlier test results, the letter stated, the state's Remedial Action Decision Document, the plan for Whirlpool to clean up the contamination, may have to be amended because a remedy for Area 1 already has been approved.
Area 1 is one of three areas that will be the focus of the neutralizing treatments. Area 1 is at the northwest corner of the plant where trichloroethylene was used from 1967-81 to clean metal refrigerator parts in preparation for assembly.
Workers removing an underground fuel tank in 1989 discovered that the chemical had leaked into the ground. In 2000, officials found the plume of trichloroethylene had seeped through the groundwater into the neighborhood just north of the plant, affecting many homes and businesses.
The Sebastian County assessor last year reduced the value of about 75 homes and businesses in the area because of the contamination.
Residents of the neighborhood were informed of the contamination in January 2013 when a representative of Whirlpool announced plans to request that city directors pass an ordinance banning the drilling of water wells in the neighborhood.
Benenati's email Tuesday said the highly contaminated-soils area and any soil removal are not believed to have any effect on the contamination under the neighborhood.
Whirlpool's plan is to allow the chemical under the neighborhood to decompose naturally. Access to the chemical would be restricted by banning drilling of wells into the contaminated groundwater.
Metro on 05/14/2014