Whirlpool Pollution Leads To Lawsuit, Property Value Declines

On the same day (May 23) lawsuits were filed seeking damages [2] following Whirlpool’s admission this year that it had leaked trichloroethylene (TCE), a potentially cancer-causing chemical, into properties north of its former Fort Smith manufacturing facility, Sebastian County Assessor Becky Yandell sent out notices to residents within the contaminated neighborhood and “fringe” areas notifying them that their properties had been reassessed and in the county’s eyes, were now worth less than just a year or two ago.

Following the reassessments, which Yandell said started earlier this year following Whirlpool’s attempt to get the city of Fort Smith to pass an ordinance banning the drilling of groundwater wells in the neighborhood due to the contamination, total values of properties in the affected area declined by 41.28%, from a collective value of $9.831 million to $5.773 million.

Properties owned by individuals and companies listed in the two lawsuits seeking damages from Whirlpool declined in value by approximately 53.17% from $1.485 million to $695,500, though a notice of real estate value change was not available for 1409 Jacobs Avenue, owned by plaintiffs Neal Morrison and Suzanne Morrison Holloway.

Yandell said the calls for reassessment began flooding her office in February and into March.

“We started having a lot of calls, of course, from people in that area. They didn’t think it was fair to have to pay the full amount of taxes on damaged properties.”

According to Yandell, the laws enabled her to reassess the properties due and she had been trained for a situation just as this.

“I looked into the law and I went to a seminar on appraising after a disaster,” she said. “And there was an oil spill in Mayflower and I talked to their assessor (in Faulkner County).”

Included in a letter to residents who were being reappraised was a statement on how values of properties were determined.

“Zach Johnson, our in-house Reappraisal Manager has done much research on TCE and has tried to find similar spills to come up with these values,” she wrote.

She elaborated today, stating that homes sitting on the plume, also known as the primary area, had land values reduced by 75% and building values reduced by 50%. In all, this affected 55 parcels of land, including 49 residences and three commercial buildings.

Properties just off the plume but bordering the plume zone, referred to by Yandell as “fringe” properties, had land values reduced by 75% and structure values reduced by 25%. Twenty-six parcels were affected in the fringe area.

Barbara Wilkinson, a plaintiff in one of today’s lawsuits against Whirlpool Corporation, had the estimated market value of her Jacobs Avenue home reduced from $93,000 following last year’s appraisal to only $42,850 with this most recent appraisal, a 53.93% drop in value in one year. She’s lived in the home since 1995.

With the blue exterior walls of the now-shuttered Whirlpool plant visible as she sat on some lawn furniture on her back porch, Wilkinson made clear that she wants the company to fix the problems and buy her property.

“I’m just going to hope for them to resolve the problem,” she said. “I have no means to move. Without my property being sold, I wouldn’t even be able to move anywhere else.”

Wilkinson said she had not heard so much as a peep from Whirlpool since the whole problem came to a head earlier this year except for a generic letter sent to all residents to let them know that Whirlpool officials would be in town.

She said much of the information she gets on what Whirlpool has proposed doing to clean up the contamination in her neighborhood has come from The City Wire while Whirlpool has not been in touch with her at all.

“So far all they’ve done is talk and I know that I read all of their little provisions (from Tuesday’s Revised Risk Management Plan) of what they said they were going to do and it’s the same thing over and over and they are even looking ahead to five years,” she said. “I may not even be here five years from now. If was to get sick, I would need to sell my property to provide for my nursing home care and no one even wants to buy it period, it wouldn’t matter how long I had it on the market. They just reduced it to nothing.”

While Whirlpool did not respond to phone calls from The City Wire seeking comment on the lawsuit and the reappraisals, Yandell provided an e-mail sent yesterday afternoon from Jim Costigan of Cushman & Wakefield, a real estate company with offices around the world.

“My firm, Cushman & (Wakefield), has been engaged by Whirlpool Corporation to assist in working out the contamination problem (which) exists in Fort Smith. I am writing you on behalf of Whirlpool to request a list of the affected properties you have identified. News reports indicate that there are 55 parcels in the contaminated area and 26 in a fringe area.

“I am requesting the list because Whirlpool will need to contact the property owners of affected parcels in the near future.”

There is no word on when Whirlpool might contact affected residents or what offer the company may make.

The company must respond in writing to today’s lawsuits within 30 days.

Yandell said residents should receive their notice of real estate value change in the mail within the next few days.