Whirlpool given 30 extra days by Arkansas Dept. of Environmental Quality to install devices to test for toxic vapors in a Fort Smith, Arkansas, neighborhood near company's former plant that closed in June 2012

Nevin Barich

FORT SMITH, Arkansas , June 27, 2014 (Associated Press) – Whirlpool Corp. is being given 30 extra days to install devices to test for toxic vapors in a Fort Smith neighborhood near the company's former plant that closed in June 2012.

The Times Record reports (http://bit.ly/1pTOi7j) that Whirlpool asked the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality for 60 additional days because access to perform the monitoring had not been granted by some property owners. ADEQ Hazardous Waste Division Chief Tammie Hynum told Whirlpool that it should document and submit all efforts it has made to secure access.

The testing is part of the company's plan to address soil and groundwater contamination.

The groundwater is contaminated with trichloroethylene, a chemical linked to increased cancer risks that was used at the plant as a degreasing solvent from the 1960s through the early 1980s.

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