2013 CPEO Brownfields List Archive

From: Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>
Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2013 17:14:29 -0700 (PDT)
Reply: cpeo-brownfields
Subject: [CPEO-BIF] "No Risk" at Whirlpool TCE plume, Fort Smith, Arkansas
 
Whirlpool: No exposure risk from TCE pollution

by Ryan Saylor
Fort Smith City Wire (AR)
October 7, 2013


The city of Fort Smith, including the city's Board of Directors, got their first look at what will be discussed at tomorrow night's (Oct. 8) special study session, when Whirlpool will be on hand to give an update on pollution remediation efforts at the company's former manufacturing facility.

Whirlpool has admitted that the area around the plant was contaminated with trichloroethylene (TCE), a potentially cancer- causing chemical the company used from the 1960s through the 1980s as a degreasing agent. The contamination has in recent decades spread to a neighborhood north of the Whirlpool plant, located on Ingersoll Road in southern Fort Smith.

...

"We know there is no risk of exposure because of the geology of the area," he writes. "Immediately below the ground surface is a layer of dense silt and clay extending above the ground water, which is generally 12-15 feet below the surface in the neighborhood to the north of the plant. Below the clay and silt are layers of sand, gravel, and at the bottom, shale/bedrock."

He said the latter was important for two reasons â residents will not come in contact with groundwater under normal circumstances due to depth and as stated previously, the surface would not allow for vapors to be released in the area.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.thecitywire.com/node/29934

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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