Whirlpool agrees to clean up toxic former park

FREMONT – Whirlpool Corp. will remove toxic waste buried at the closed Whirlpool Park so the property owners can build a house there after the company and land owners settled their federal lawsuit.

The company is working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to remove the sludge, which the EPA found in 2012 while testing the site.

Whirlpool owned the property — located at the intersection of Sandusky County Road 181 and Township Road 187 near Green Springs — and operated it as a popular park for employees at the company’s Clyde plant and their friends and families from 1953 to 2006.

The current owners, Jonathan Abdoo and his father, Robert Abdoo, bought the land in 2008, and Jonthan and his wife, Brandy, planned to build their dream home there until the EPA found the toxic sludge. The cleanup will allow them to move forward with their plans, said their attorney, Thomas Bowlus, of Fremont.

“I’m really happy for Jonathan and Brandy,” Bowlus said. “They were quite discouraged for a while. It looks like we might be able to get that dream back.”

Bowlus said that the settlement is confidential and that he could not discuss details, including how much the cleanup would cost. A Whirlpool spokesman was not available for comment on Friday, but the company did release a statement.

“We are pleased to have reached a resolution in that case so that we can truly focus on the EPA-approved remediation efforts at the property,” according to a statement from the company.

The Abdoos were part of a larger federal lawsuit filed in 2013 in U.S. District Court in Toledo. The initial lawsuit alleged that Whirlpool Corp. caused a childhood cancer cluster that affected the Clyde area and sickened more than 30 children, some of whom died from their illnesses.

The lawsuit also alleged that cancer-causing agents called PCBs and other contaminants found at the park’s basketball and tennis courts and other areas sickened people who lived around the park. In February, everyone but the Abdoos dropped the lawsuit against Whirlpool.

“We were just trying to get the property cleaned up,” Bowlus said. “My client feels good about it.”

In the past, Whirlpool has denied burying the sludge on the land or knowing it was there. The company did not contest that the chemicals were placed in the park during the time Whirlpool owned it, Bowlus said.

The sludge removal will start later this month, and work to prepare the land will start sooner, he said. Work should be finished this fall, Bowlus and the company stated.

“We’re talking about planting grass seed in October,” Bowlus said.

mksmith@gannett.com

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Twitter: @kristinasmithNM