[CPEO-BIF] "No Risk" at Whirlpool TCE plume, Fort Smith, Arkansas

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

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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