Whirlpool settles on most claims related to TCE pollution at Fort Smith plant

Whirlpool officials said Friday (April 17) they have paid more than $3 million to property owners harmed by pollution around the company’s former manufacturing plant in Fort Smith, and have settled claims with all but two property owners near the plant.

The company 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. Whirlpool has been working to monitor and remove the chemicals, with oversight of the work handled by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality. ADEQ issued its first remedial action plan December 2013.

Jeff Noel, Whirlpool’s corporate vice president of communications and public affairs, and Mike Ellis, an engineer with Environ, told the Fort Smith Board of Directors in January that TCE levels have decreased around Whirlpool’s plant in Fort Smith. Environ is consulting Whirlpool in the clean up effort. According to Whirlpool’s annual report to the Board, the company has installed 202 “membrane interface probes,” 62 soil probes, 86 monitoring wells, and five temporary boundary wells.

The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) continues to monitor Whirlpool’s mitigation and removal efforts. 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 Whirlpool to address the issue.

Friday’s announcement by Whirlpool followed Thursday’s dismissal by U.S. District Judge P.K. Holmes III, of litigation between Whirlpool and some of the property owners. Both sides requested the the dismissal after “extensive arms length negotiations” resulted in a mutually acceptable agreement.

"The settlements concluded during the past two months include paying affected owners the amount by which each property was devalued by the Tax Assessor, plus 33% of that amount,” Noel said in Friday’s statement from Whirlpool. “In exchange for the payments, property owners agreed to release all claims and dismiss pending litigation, to file deed restrictions prohibiting drilling of wells on the properties, and to allow access for testing and remediation activities being undertaken by Whirlpool and its consultants."

Whirlpool said 54 property owners “have entered into, or are in the process of finalizing, settlement agreements on the same terms.” The company described as “unreasonable” the two claims not being settled.

“The claims that are continuing in litigation are outliers with demands that are simply unreasonable. We have been more than generous in determining the compensation we will pay to owners, but any settlement must be fair to everyone involved,” Noel said in the statement.

Through Noel, the company also noted: “Whirlpool remained steadfast in its promise to be fair to the community by treating all property owners the same and by compensating even property owners who had not brought claims against us. To achieve this, we literally went door-to-door in the community seeking out people who had chosen not to sue the company to ensure that they were compensated the same as those plaintiffs in the litigation. We will also continue to work closely with environmental regulators and the City of Ft. Smith to remediate the contamination pursuant to the Consent Letter and RADD. We are also actively working to sell the remainder of the closed facility for redevelopment, which we hope will only further help nearby property owners.”