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Whirlpool Fort Smith
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Whirlpool, city street work draw criticism at Fort Smith Board session
Oct 13, 2015 | City Wire
By Aric Mitchell
Fort Smith Director Tracy Pennartz took Whirlpool representatives to task at the Tuesday (Oct. 13) study session of the Fort Smith Board of Directors and also began the process of dissecting the city’s Five-Year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) for the streets, drainage, and associated drainage sales tax program. -
Whirlpool: Effort abating chemical spill
Oct 14, 2015 | Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
By Dave Hughes
A plume of hazardous chemical under the closed Whirlpool plant and an adjoining neighborhood continues to dissipate from chemical treatment and natural decomposition, a company official told city directors Tuesday. -
Whirlpool Offers Fort Smith Chemical-Cleanup Report
Oct 14, 2015 | SW Times Record
By Chad Hunter
Fort Smith leaders were updated Tuesday on progress made cleaning Whirlpool’s toxic site as a state-approved remediation plan nears the two-year mark. -
Progress Made in Decontamination Process
Oct 14, 2015 | KFSM [video]
An executive with Whirlpool tells Fort Smith city leaders that progress is being made with the decontamination process at the old plant on Jenny Lind Road.
City Directors Meeting Coverage
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Whirlpool, city street work draw criticism at Fort Smith Board session
Oct 13, 2015 | City Wire
By Aric Mitchell
Fort Smith Director Tracy Pennartz took Whirlpool representatives to task at the Tuesday (Oct. 13) study session of the Fort Smith Board of Directors and also began the process of dissecting the city’s Five-Year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) for the streets, drainage, and associated drainage sales tax program.
First in the crosshairs was Jeff Noel, Whirlpool’s corporate vice president of communications and public affairs, who was discussing plans for the abandoned manufacturing site, when Pennartz pressed him for a timeline on redevelopment.
Noel acknowledged that simply “keeping a For Sale sign out” would not make the property more attractive to buyers with its “rundown” look in the wake of the company’s departure and the discovery of chemical contamination by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ).
“I do feel really good with what we’ve done so far, but I do think we need a vision and some clarity with ADEQ as to what are the ongoing activities that need to be done on that site to assure that there are no health concerns. But I agree with you, it doesn’t look good today,” he said.
“I’m glad you agree with me,” Pennartz responded, “but I guess what I’m asking for is some timeline of your vision. Are we talking 15 to 20 years, are we talking 5 to 8 years, are we talking 3 to 5? Just exactly what are we talking about? What exactly, because you can say you’ve got a vision but until you do it, it’s just a vision.”
Noel said that he didn’t have a “crystal ball,” but he believed the next steps would be “step one, give a better vision of what it could look like. Then, I can come back and talk about the steps that will be done or what could be done over the next couple of years to advance that vision forward and to reach some clarity with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality on what will happen on that site, and to know what road improvements will look like and when those timelines will take place.”
“I believe then, we can get more specific,” Noel added.
Pennartz said it sounded like everything would take five years, and that she “would like to see some type of timeline,” to which Noel responded, “Gotcha.”
WHIRLPOOL PROGRESS
During Tuesday’s presentation, Noel did offer some insights as to what the company envisioned for the property, including “strategic demolition” around the 1.1 million square feet of the main manufacturing facility. He also felt that they would work to retain as much of the 39-foot ceilings as possible as those could be attractive to other manufacturing or distribution centers and that it would be too costly to replicate from scratch.He also believed the smaller surrounding buildings, ranging from 11,000 to 60,000 square feet could be good for “smaller and mid-sized users for manufacturing or operational locations.”
In April, Whirlpool officials said they had paid more than $3 million to property owners harmed by pollution around the manufacturing plant, and had settled claims with all but two property owners near the plant. Noel reiterated these two unsettled cases on Tuesday, naming them as the River of Life Church and Bost Human Development Service, though he did feel “confident” in how those two negotiations were progressing.
Whirlpool closed the refrigerator manufacturing plant in June 2012, and later that year it was made public that trichloroethyclene – a cancer-causing chemical – was found in and around the plant. The company has monitored and removed some chemicals, with oversight of the work handled by the ADEQ, which issued its first remedial action plan in December 2013.
Noel and Mike Ellis, an engineer with Environ who was in attendance Tuesday, told the Fort Smith Board of Directors in January that TCE levels had decreased around the Fort Smith plant. Environ is consulting Whirlpool in the cleanup effort. According to Tuesday’s report, Whirlpool has installed 169 “membrane interface probes” to screen soil and groundwater, 88 soil probes for soil and groundwater sampling, 111 monitoring wells, and eight “South Sentinel” wells.
Whirlpool initially sought a groundwater well ban in response to the discovery of TCE, but public outcry and ADEQ involvement resulted in more extensive and expensive work by the company to address the issue. The company’s timeline and progress can be monitored through the WhirlpoolFortSmith website.
STREETS, BRIDGES AND DRAINAGE
Also Tuesday, Pennartz set sights on some of the priorities as determined in the city’s CIP for streets, bridges, and associated drainage. She was particularly concerned with the lack of progress on the widening of Arkansas 45 south of Zero Street (around Planters Road), noting that there hadn’t been any movement on the plan in at least 14 years and per the proposed plan presented by Stan Snodgrass, the city’s director of engineering, the $200,000 project would be delayed until 2020.Pennartz acknowledged Snodgrass’ explanation that the state of Arkansas and Sebastian County would have to be involved for anything to get done, but saw it in the city’s best interests to spearhead the conversation.
“Since we know that it behooves us to initiate the conversation with these two other parties, that’s what we should do. To just put your head in the sand on this issue is not the appropriate way to attack it,” Pennartz said.Advertisement:
Pennartz also agreed with City Director Keith Lau that the city should not take on the $1.1 million cost of street and drainage improvements for a 50-55 unit single family and duplex development to be located on the former Red Barn property along Newlon Road.
The Fort Smith Housing Authority (FSHA) is developing the site, and while it’s yet to be determined if the FSHA will pay real estate taxes on the development, Lau could not justify spending $1.1 million, especially if there was a “no-turn on taxes for 30 years.” Pennartz recommended reallocating that $1.1 million to street overlays and reconstruction – a consideration that will be up for discussion when the Board takes on the CIP at its Oct. 20 meeting.
Finally, Pennartz took aim at some of the generalities in Snodgrass’ budget, asking for further delineation on a $2.6 million line item that he had marked simply as “Engineering Dept. and Other Depts.,” and critiquing, “That’s like just lumping $2.6 million into what category and saying, ‘Other.’”
The CIP projects $180.96 million in revenue and $149.294 million in expenses through 2020. Revenue is largely derived from the one-cent sales tax approved by voters in the spring of 2015.
Link to article: http://www.thecitywire.com/node/39197#.Vh5Ve36rSCg
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Whirlpool: Effort abating chemical spill
Oct 14, 2015 | Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
By Dave Hughes
A plume of hazardous chemical under the closed Whirlpool plant and an adjoining neighborhood continues to dissipate from chemical treatment and natural decomposition, a company official told city directors Tuesday.
Whirlpool Vice President Jeff Noel didn't have much new information for directors in his quarterly report on Whirlpool's trichloroethylene cleanup effort. As he reported in August, chemical oxidation of the chemical has reduced the amount of the chemical in the groundwater under the old plant property by 72 percent to 91 percent in high concentration areas on plant property.
A cover letter for the quarterly report said the amount of the chemical in the ground on Whirlpool property and the adjoining neighborhood totaled 3 to 11 gallons.
By contrast, Mike Ellis with Whirlpool consultant Romboll Environ told city directors that 3,500 to 4,000 gallons of chemical oxidant has been injected into the groundwater on company property and on the edge of the neighborhood to neutralize the trichloroethylene.
One new wrinkle in the report, Ellis said, was that Romboll Environ has begun a six- to 12-month pilot study at the north end of the chemical plume -- which is in the neighborhood with the contaminated groundwater -- to determine whether chemical oxidation treatment is necessary there. Whirlpool's remediation plan approved by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality initially called for the trichloroethylene under the neighborhood to decompose naturally rather than by chemical treatment.
Another wrinkle, he said, was the need for additional chemical oxidation treatments to further reduce the trichloroethylene concentration in the more heavily contaminated groundwater at the north end of the company property.
The contamination was believed to have occurred when trichloroethylene once used to clean metal refrigerator parts at the northeast corner of the manufacturing plant leaked into the groundwater over several years.
Also Tuesday, Noel said the two-year Remedial Action Decision Document, or cleanup plan, between Whirlpool and the environmental quality department expires at the end of the year, which will trigger issuance of an effectiveness report at the end of January.
Noel added that Whirlpool is starting to plan to strategically demolish part of the 1.2 million-square-foot manufacturing plant and renovate the remainder for possible multipurpose uses. The demolition will provide more space for construction of different-size buildings that would offer a variety of uses and make the property more marketable.
The company has been trying to sell the 152-acre property since the refrigerator plant closed in June 2012.
In October 2014, Spartan Logistics bought Whirlpool's 620,000-square-foot distribution center building just south of the manufacturing plant. In July, Furniture Factory Outlet announced that it will move its retail furniture operation from Oklahoma into 180,000 square feet of the Spartan Logistics building.
Metro on 10/14/2015
Print Headline: Whirlpool: Effort abating chemical spill
Link to article: http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2015/oct/14/whirlpool-effort-abating-chemical-spill-1/?f=news-arkansas
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Whirlpool Offers Fort Smith Chemical-Cleanup Report
Oct 14, 2015 | SW Times Record
By Chad Hunter
Fort Smith leaders were updated Tuesday on progress made cleaning Whirlpool’s toxic site as a state-approved remediation plan nears the two-year mark.
“We think we’ve made a lot of progress in the last 24 months,” Whirlpool Corp. spokesman Jeff Noel told the Board of Directors during a study session.
Trichloroethylene, a toxic substance known as TCE, was used at the plant on Jenny Lind Road as a degreasing agent between the late 1960s and early 1980s before it was found to be harmful, according to Whirlpool.
The property has been contaminated since at least 1989 when TCE was discovered at the site, according to Whirlpool’s environmental consulting firm, Environ. It was in 2001 that Whirlpool says it discovered TCE migrated off company property and into a neighborhood to the north.
Whirlpool estimates there are 3 to 11 gallons of TCE remaining in soil and groundwater on and off the plant property.
Working with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality for more than a decade, Whirlpool was given the nod in December 2013 for a cleanup plan, called a Remedial Action Decision Document or RADD, to address the TCE.
Since early 2014, TCE counter measures have included treatment of contaminated groundwater with a chemical oxidant and removal of toxic soil. Mike Ellis of Environ said work this fall includes two additional chemical treatments.
“That’s what we’ve done in the past,” he said. “We’ve seen 70-80 percent reductions in the concentrations.”
Addressing health risks to the community, Ellis said there are “no complete exposure pathways.”
“There is no contamination in soil you can go out and touch,” he said, adding that the TCE is between 15-30 feet deep. “The contamination that exists is right above the bedrock.”
TCE monitoring and detection measures installed in and around the plant include nearly 260 probes, 111 monitoring wells and eight recently-installed “sentinel” wells along the south boundary for early warning of contamination.
Recently, Ellis said, two additional monitoring wells were installed on nearby property owned by the Fort Smith Boys & Girls Club.
A settlement was reached this year with plaintiffs whose property north of the plant was devalued by the contamination. Settlement terms called for Whirlpool to pay affected owners the amount by which each property was devalued according to the Sebastian County tax assessor, plus 33 percent.
Noel said deed restrictions that ban new water wells have been filed for all but two targeted properties, River of Life Church and a housing complex.
Although Whirlpool had been working with the state for more than a decade toward a cleanup plan, in January 2013 concerns about the contamination emerged after Whirlpool requested from the city a ban on new wells around its plant, which closed in 2012.
A third-quarter progress report is expected to be filed with the state Nov. 14. Released in August, the last quarterly report on cleanup efforts described a majority of monitoring site locations as experiencing “generally stable to decreasing trends for TCE concentrations at a majority of monitoring well locations.”
A two-year RADD “effectiveness” report is also expected by the ADEQ by the end of 2015. “They come back with what next actions need to occur,” Ellis said.
Link to article: http://swtimes.com/news/whirlpool-offers-fort-smith-chemical-cleanup-report
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Progress Made in Decontamination Process
Oct 14, 2015 | KFSM [video]
Rough transcript of video clip:
An executive with Whirlpool tells Fort Smith city leaders that progress is being made with the decontamination process at the old plant on Jenny Lind Road. The plant was closed in 2012 after it was discovered that a chemical---trichlorethylene---also known as TCE had leaked into the groundwater decades ago. Mayor Sanders says the work will go on for quite some time and that the plume is continuing to shrink.
Direct link to clip: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view?16723319/token/a7ab6355-69c8-4ac2-a481-cdbd9c052506
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