FORT SMITH, Ark. (TB&P) — Eight years after Whirlpool shuttered the doors, cleanup of a cancer-causing chemical continues at the former site of its 1.2 million square foot manufacturing plant on Jenny Lind.
The appliance manufacturer closed the plant in June 2012, moving most production jobs to Mexico. One year later, officials with Benton Harbor, Mich.-based Whirlpool admitted to leaking trichloroethylene (TCE), a cancer-causing chemical, into properties north of the Fort Smith plant.
In September 2016 Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) approved a Revised Groundwater Monitoring Plan (RGWMP) for the Whirlpool site in Fort Smith. In accordance with the RGWMP, an action plan is required whenever “expansion of the plume is confirmed by validated data indicating constituent concentrations exceeding remedial action levels (RALs) collected during two consecutive monitoring events,” paperwork from ADEQ states.
On Oct. 23, Ramboll US Corporation, on behalf of Whirlpool, submitted a 2019 Action Plan. This 2019 Action Plan was requested by ADEQ in a comment letter dated Aug. 28. The 2019 Action Plan summarized the investigation completed in June 2019; proposed supplemental investigation along the south property boundary; and summarized proposed supplemental remedial actions that consisted of a work plan for in-situ chemical reduction (ISCR).
On Dec. 19, Ramboll submitted a work plan in response to ADEQ’s conditional approval of their 2019 Action Plan. The 2019 Action Plan included supplemental remediation at one of the monitoring wells “consisting of injections of in-situ chemical reduction (ISCR) reagents to form a permeable reactive barrier (PRB) in the vicinity” of the well. ADEQ’s conditional approval of the 2019 Action Plan requested additional investigation in the area, letters provided by ADEQ said.
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