ADEQ disputes Whirlpool finding that TCE plume is not growing

In an Oct. 22 response to questions by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality about the stability of a toxic plume of potentially cancer-causing trichloroethylene (TCE), Whirlpool Corporation has again made statements it said justifies previous assertions that the TCE plume is not growing, despite ADEQ statements that have provided the opposite conclusion.

The ADEQ memo dated Sept. 22 stated that the ADEQ believed the plume was potentially growing. ADEQ Engineer Mostafa Mehran wrote to Robert Karwowski, director of environmental, health and safety at Whirlpool, regarding a report by Whirlpool about additional TCE pollution that was found near a Boys and Girls Club located in South Fort Smith not far from the shuttered factory facility.

Whirlpool had previously said the TCE near the Boys and Girls Club was not a threat.

But in Mehran's letter to Whirlpool, the ADEQ engineer said the company failed to indicate that the TCE plume could be growing. He cited several detections of the chemical used as a degreasing agent at the factory through the 1980s, noting that the levels are above detection limits and that TCE was also discovered in groundwater samples taken at the site.

"This could be an indication of plume expansion," Mehran wrote, advising the company to make changes to the August report where it wrote indicating that the TCE at the Boys and Girls Club posed no threat. The report, he said, should indicate that the plume could be growing. Mehran also directed Whirlpool to install additional monitoring wells to keep track of the TCE plume.

"Given the apparent shape of the plume, ADEQ requires an additional monitoring well in the northwest corner of City of Fort Smith property (three properties)," he wrote.

Since that time, Whirlpool and the city of Fort Smith – which owns property where monitoring wells will be installed – have come to an agreement for monitoring wells to be installed.

But in the Oct. 22 letter to ADEQ, Whirlpool's environmental consultant Michael Ellis of ENVIRON Corp. again asserted that there was no risk posed to the public and said the plume was not growing.

"The Mann-Kendall trend analysis utilizes data from all wells associated with the monitoring for the northern plume. … As described in more detail below, our determination that the plume is stable is based on the fact that 82% of these wells exhibit either little or no TCE or a decreasing or stable TCE concentration trend."

Ellis said 14 wells "exhibit a stable trend for TCE concentrations," while seven showed decreasing TCE trends and another seven showed no TCE trend. He said another six wells show TCE "below detection limits." But even with the more than two dozen wells showing stable or decreasing TCE concentrations, Ellis admitted that five "wells exhibit an increasing trend for TCE concentrations."

"TCE concentrations in 11 of the 39 (28%) have been non-detect or less than 1 µg/L since October 2011 and 21 of the 39 wells (54%) have exhibited decreasing or stable trends; therefore, 32 of 39 wells (82%) of the wells exhibit either little or no TCE or a decreasing or stable TCE concentration trend. We believe that this supports our plume stability conclusions," Ellis continued.

Other documents released by ADEQ Monday (Nov. 3) show that the agency had questioned Whirlpool's proposed removal of soil, saying the company's environmental consultants may not be removing enough contaminated soil at the northwest corner of the site, known as "Area 1."

"Please discuss in detail how the removal of limited amount of soil proposed in the work plan will remediate the soil below the RAL," Mehran had wrote to Whirlpool and ENVIRON on Sept. 23.

In response, Ellis said removing more soil than the 300 cubic yards already removed from the site would be pointless and would create "significant additional complications that would negatively affect the progress of onsite and offsite remediation, as well as the redevelopment of the overall site."

Ellis also noted that remediation plan calls for "capping" the site, which would mean a concrete or asphalt layer would be placed on the soil to prevent digging and any soil vapor rising from the contaminated site. The plan calls for the capping in addition to chemical oxidation treatments.

"The selected management method of onsite impacted soils under the RADD (remediation plan) is capping and containment, not removal of soil below the RAL. This method was chosen precisely because soil removal would neither reduce the risk of exposure to onsite workers or area residents not would it materially impact the offsite groundwater contamination."

Ellis also said soil removal above what has already been completed would present "several engineering and operational setbacks."

"Substantial additional soil removal would threaten the structural integrity of the former manufacturing building and stability of the electrical substation," he said. "It would also require de-watering operations. These issues would likely complicate and delay completion of the remediation activities required under the RADD and the ongoing redevelopment of the property."

Contamination of the site former Whirlpool manufacturing facility site in south Fort Smith along Ingersoll Road was discovered in the early part of the century and was disclosed to ADEQ. Contamination, the company said, was caused by the use of a degreasing agent that contained TCE.

The company is the defendant in a class action lawsuit, which it has attempted to settle. The settlement offer, according to Whirlpool Vice President Jeff Noel, would have the company paying 100% of the devaluation amount for properties impacted by the TCE plume, plus 33% of that total and all costs associated with achieving the settlement.

In return, property owners would release Whirlpool of all property claims and allow for reasonable testing and monitoring on property and allow a deed restriction on drilling to be placed on impacted properties. Noel said it would allow property owners to reclaim as much as 75.7% of the original tax appraised value of the properties before Sebastian County Tax Assessor Becky Yandell lowered property values in the TCE plume. According to information Noel said was compiled by Whirlpool, typical TCE settlements only recover 20% of property values.

The settlement is under consideration U.S. District Judge P.K. Holmes III of the U.S. Western District Court of Arkansas in Fort Smith.