Whirlpool posts 2024 report on Fort Smith pollution monitoring

The 2024 annual report from the engineering firm hired by Whirlpool to monitor cancer-causing pollution at the former Whirlpool site in Fort Smith indicates the presence of harmful chemicals remain, but there is “no unacceptable risk to human health or the environment.”

Benton Harbor, Mich.-based Whirlpool closed its refrigerator manufacturing plant at 6400 Jenny Lind Road in June 2012, moving most production jobs to Mexico. Around 1,000 people worked at the plant when it closed, but plant employment peaked near 4,500. In 2013, and after public pressure, Whirlpool officials admitted to leaking trichloroethylene (TCE), a cancer-causing chemical, into properties around the Fort Smith plant, which sat on 153 acres.

Copenhagen, Denmark-based Ramboll was hired by Whirlpool to monitor the pollution and provide remediation plans and information to the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ). The company began remediation in October 2015 with injection wells around what was then the known plumes. Other dangerous chemicals monitored include vinyl chloride and a cDCE, a form of dichloroethene.

Without notification to the media or City of Fort Smith officials, Whirlpool posted its 2024 pollution-monitoring report in February.

“The investigation and monitoring activities at the Site have not identified any complete exposure pathways in the residential area (i.e., direct exposure, consumption, or vapor intrusion),” Rambolli noted in its report. “Given the current deed restrictions for the Whirlpool property and impacted offsite properties, there is no unacceptable risk to human health or the environment.”

Rambolli noted in the report that indoor air monitoring indicated possible direct exposure with TCE, but the “cumulative risk estimates for the onsite worker were below or within the ADEQ’s acceptable range of non-cancer hazard and cancer target values. These results do not indicate health risks from indoor exposures under current operating conditions.”

The report also noted that the south plume of pollution is expanding south and southwest.

“Whirlpool is developing a remediation work plan for the South Plume that will propose an implementation plan for an ISCR treatment area south of the onsite building,” Rambolli wrote. “This work plan will be submitted under separate cover and is anticipated to be submitted within first quarter of 2025.”

Following are other items in the report.
• Findings in the north plume indicate it is stable in terms of growth, and chemical reduction efforts in 2015 and 2018 “have successfully established a reducing environment …”

• Groundwater tests in the north plume show a reduction in TCE but “temporary” increases in vinyl chloride and eDCE.

• Another chemical reduction process in the north plume is set for Spring 2025.

• Tests in the east plume shows that is expanding eastward, with a chemical reduction “treatment” made in 2024.

• The south plume tests shows that “TCE concentrations within the source area remain relatively consistent with some historical fluctuation in the magnitude of detections.”

• Groundwater analysis in the south plume shows a reduction in TCE and an increase in eDCE. The eDCE increase is temporary because it reflects a decrease in TCE, according to Rambolli.

Link here for the complete report from Rambolli.