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Over the past week, the Bradenton Herald (FL) has published two reports regarding incomplete plume data from the tests conducted by Lockheed Martin in Tallevast.
The first report tells us that the State finds plume data incomplete:
Lockheed Martin Corp. once again has failed to adequately define a plume of underground contamination in Tallevast, state environmental regulators say.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection submitted its latest review of Lockheed data in an e-mail letter to the defense giant on Wednesday.
The DEP’s review of Lockheed’s Aug. 5 site assessment said plume hot spots raise more questions than data answer and instructed Lockheed to conduct more testing in several areas.
In a follow-up report, entitled Further testing needed, EPA says, we learn:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency agrees with Florida environmental regulators that Lockheed Martin Corp. must do more testing to accurately define the size and direction of the Tallevast plume of underground contamination.
The EPA outlined some of the same areas of concern that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection identified in its review released Wednesday, as reported by The Herald. The EPA comment-letter, dated Sept. 8, is now included in the state’s report.
[...]
But both state and federal regulatory environmental officials have found gaps in Lockheed’s test data that lead them to believe some of the toxins and solvents identified in the contamination may have spread farther and deeper than Lockheed claims.
Thanks to the Center for Public Environmental Oversight (CPEO) for this tip:
DONNA WRIGHT
Bradenton Herald (FL)
September 18, 2005
TALLEVAST – The toxic plume under Tallevast could be far more dangerous
than Lockheed Martin Corp. and government agencies admit, warns a
nationally known environmental scientist.
The health risks and property damage could extend far beyond Tallevast,
predicts chemist Wilma Subra, a technical adviser for the Louisiana
Environmental Action Network.
Subra reviewed environmental reports on Tallevast at The Herald’s request.
Read the full story here.
The Bradenton Herald (FL) reports:
Residents have filed suit against Lockheed Martin Corp.
Potential damages could be in the tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions, of dollars, said Sally W. Comollo, spokeswoman for Motley Rice of Mount Pleasant, S.C., one of several law firms advising Tallevast residents.
The claim is not a class action lawsuit but a consolidation of more than 200 cases, Comollo said.
Gail Rymer, Lockheed’s director of corporate and community affairs, said the defense giant would not comment on a legal action it had not yet seen.
[...]
Other defendants named in the suit filed in the 12th Judicial Circuit Court in Manatee County are Loral Corp., Wire Pro Inc., WPI Sarasota Division Inc. and BECSD, the holding company currently listed as owner of the factory at 1600 Tallevast Road, which has been pegged as the source of the contamination.
[...]
While Lockheed informed Manatee County officials and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, residents did not learn of the contamination in their backyards until almost four years later.
[...]
Legal causes of action named in the lawsuit include: common law strict liability, violation of a Florida law governing release and discharge of hazardous, negligence, trespass, private nuisance and intentional infliction of emotional distress and outrage.
The suit alleges the defendants have, at various times, “intentionally or recklessly misinformed the public,” by claiming the hazardous chemicals migrating off the site have been properly evaluated and contained when in fact they have not.
Lockheed Martin has repeatedly said that tests show the plume represents no threat to Tallevast residents’ health or property.
[...]
Other law firms representing Tallevast residents include Robert Walker & Associates of Richmond, Va., and the Cottingham Law Firm of Charleston, S.C.
Read the full story
A few weeks ago, the Orlando Sentinel reported:
SANFORD — Six former employees have filed suit against Siemens Information and Communications Networks Inc., accusing the company of poisoning them by making them work with toxic chemicals, then dumping the toxins into the ground and tainting their drinking supply.
Two of the plaintiffs have since died because of the poisons, the suit alleges.
The suit named Siemens, which closed the Lake Mary electronics plant two years ago, and several other companies that owned or manufactured circuits and other equipment on the property at 400 Rinehart Road. They include General Dynamics Corp. and Stromberg-Carlson Corp.
[...]
State environmental officials have found dangerous levels of trichloroethylene, a carcinogen also known as TCE, in the groundwater there but say it poses no threat to the public.
[...]
The suit does not specify what caused the deaths of Robert Goodale and Katherine Provenzano, but it blames the chemicals. None of the plaintiffs was available for comment. Neither was their attorney, John R. Overchuck of Winter Park.
Read the full story.
According to the Orlando Sentinel (FL):
LONGWOOD — Fifty years ago, travelers would stop at an artesian well in Spring Hammock just off U.S. Highway 17-92 for a cool drink of water. Now, that well has been capped and the property is part of a federal environmental Superfund site.
Cancer-causing chemicals have contaminated the groundwater, seeping into a small patch of the Floridan Aquifer, the source of most of Central Florida’s drinking water.
Regulators say there is no danger to the public. The toxins have spread a few hundred feet and are a half-mile from the closest residential neighborhood.
The pollution came from an electrical-parts manufacturer, Sprague Electric Co., which cleaned them with the solvent trichloroethene, or TCE, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Another manufacturer, Dearborn Electronics, now operates on the 12-acre site, producing capacitators but it’s not putting pollutants into the ground, according to government records.
Just last month, the EPA mailed letters to neighbors, informing them of the contamination. The toxins have been found on adjacent or nearby properties of another manufacturer and Spring Hammock Preserve, a 400-acre public woodland.
In truth, those neighbors have lived next to the toxins for more than 20 years, and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection has been involved for 19 of those years.
Still, the contamination hasn’t been cleaned up.
“As long as we don’t have people directly exposed, taking years doesn’t disturb us,” said Tom Lubozynski, a DEP Orlando waste-program administrator.
EPA places only the nation’s most serious hazardous waste sites on its Superfund list. Their cleanup is an agency priority.
We recently posted an article about ongoing tests for TCE contamination in Tallevast, FL. In the very same story, environmental attorney Shawn Collins offers this advice on the requirements for effective mapping of contamination plume boundaries:
Nothing less than a picket fence of monitoring wells spaced 25 to 50 feet apart will accurately define the plume, said Collins.
Collins reached a $16.9 million settlement in 2004 for 1,400 clients whose drinking water was contaminated by TCE traced to the nearby Lockformer Co. In another suit against the company, Collins won a $10 million class-action jury award in 2002 for 186 other families in LeClerq, Ill. whose drinking water was contaminated by a second plume near the Lockformer plume.
He also secured a $7.2 million settlement in 2003 for Anne Schreiber, who spent 11 years of her childhood in the LeClerq, Ill., area. Collins proved Schreiber was exposed to TCE as a child, which caused her to develop Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma later in life.
In the Lisle case, almost all of the families relied on drinking-water wells for their needs, Collins said. Testing all of those wells for TCE exposure gave a good representation of what toxins were underground, he said.
The Tallevast situation warrants similar blanket testing, Collins said in a recent phone interview.
Collins warned that TCE can form slugs or pools of high concentration. If a well is drilled outside of that pool or slug, it may not pick up the true level of the toxin in the ground.
“Unless you have established that picket fence of monitoring wells, you cannot say where the boundaries lie,” Collins said.
Finding those boundaries is of paramount importance, said Collins. The answers, he added, are obtainable.
“Whether it is Lisle or Bradenton or Dayton, Ohio, the direction of the groundwater is known,” said Collins. “The speed is known. You can determine fairly accurately how long it has been in the ground and you can determine the concentrations and movement through the community’s groundwater. The company and the government owe it to the people to find these things out.”
Fearing for their health, Tallevast residents want independent tests on all monitoring wells Lockheed Martin Corp. has drilled to map a plume of contamination stemming from a former beryllium plant.
The residents distrust Lockheed’s claim that data collected so far shows no current health risks to Tallevast residents.
Shawn Collins, an environmental attorney who won more than $25 million in jury awards and settlements for families in a similar pollution case in Lisle, Ill., said Tallevast residents have good reason to collect their own data. Collins’ case involved TCE, a solvent that was used at the Tallevast site.
Read more in the Bradenton Herald.
Continuing with their fantastic coverage, the Bradenton herald (FL) reports:
Lockheed Martin Corp. has agreed to complete a Health Risk Assessment of the Tallevast community, but whether it answers residents’ questions about their health remains to be seen, community leaders said Wednesday.
One thing is for certain: No answers will be available for several months.
[...]
Moreover, the proposed assessment process will consider only current and future pathways of exposure, not the historical health review Tallevast leaders have sought.
Read the full story.
Southwest Florida’s Herald Tribune reports:
Dozens of homes in Tallevast are located near contaminated soil and ground water, the legacy of a weapons manufacturing plant that operated for nearly 40 years in the neighborhood before closing in 1996. Lockheed Martin bought the plant and is responsible for the cleanup.
[...]
“I’ve got a clean neighborhood over here and I’ve got a contaminated neighborhood over here. Where am I going to buy? And that’s what drives down the prices,” said Michael Lythcott, president of The Lythcott Company, a New Jersey-based environmental consulting firm that focuses on the effects of pollution on real estate.
Read the full story. Or have a look at our previous post, How neighborhood contamination can affect home values – a case study
The Bradenton Herald (FL) reports of distrust in Tallevast as Lockheed brings in two large black tanks.
Thanks to CPEO for the tip:
June 24, 2005
The Honorable Stephen L. Johnson
Administrator
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Ariel Rios Building (1101A)
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20460
Dear Administrator Johnson:
Millions of Americans are exposed to trichloroethylene (TCE) every day
in their water and air. Many scientists believe TCE to be carcinogenic,
immunotoxic, and neurotoxic. As you know, EPA drafted a Human Health
Risk Assessment in 2001 that determined TCE is 5 to 65 times more toxic
than previously believed. The Assessment received a positive review
from EPA’s Science Advisory Board, which commended EPA for its
“groundbreaking” work. Based upon the Assessment, EPA regions developed
new, more protective provisional screening levels, and some even began
using these provisional standards in the field.
However, other federal agencies considered the new levels overly
conservative, and EPA agreed to send the scientific issues raised by the
Assessment to the National Academy of Sciences’ National Research
Council for re-review. Gradually, EPA’s regions de-emphasized the more
protective screening levels. When Members of Congress wrote letters to
EPA asking that the protective standards be used, Henry L. Longest, II,
Acting Assistant Administrator for EPA’s Office of Research and
Development, responded, “EPA is current evaluating a number of interim
approaches for screening levels while awaiting a final TCE risk
assessment.” Acting Assistant Administrator for the Office of Solid
Waste and Emergency Response, Thomas Dunne, wrote, “For vapor intrusion
issues … EPA has not developed national guidance.”
It is expected that it will be years before EPA finalizes its TCE risk
assessment, and Americans are constantly being exposed to this and
similar toxic substances. We therefore strongly urge EPA to adopt a
protective “interim approach.” EPA should use provisional screening
levels based upon the 2001 Human Health Risk Assessment until a new risk
assessment is completed. For example, based upon work done by several
EPA regions, the screening level for TCE in air would be about .02
micrograms per cubic meter.
EPA personnel developing or overseeing the development of remediation
and mitigation strategies should consider those levels. Most
immediately, vapor exposure investigations should use sampling
technologies designed to detect TCE down to those provisional levels.
We appreciate your attention in this matter, and we look forward to
hearing your response.
Sincerely,
Susan Kelly (R-NY)
Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ)
Raul M. Grijalva (D-AZ)
Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX)
Jerrold Nadler (D-NY)
Major R. Owens (D-NY)
Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD)
Anna G. Eshoo (D-CA)
Katherine Harris (R-FL)
Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio)
Maurice Hinchey (D-NY)
Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY)
Howard L. Berman (D-CA)
Update: NY press covers the story here and here
Thanks to CPEO for tipping us off to this. The Bradenton Herald (FL) reports:
Lockheed Martin Corp. has agreed to consider funding a health risk study of Tallevast residents to help determine how their health may have been affected by an underground plume of industrial pollution.
But officials representing the defense giant warned such a study cannot pinpoint with any certainty the cause of illnesses or medical conditions
residents believe are related to the pollution.
Those cause-and-effect answers, said Gail Rymer, Lockheed’s director of
corporate communications, can be determined only in front of a jury in a
court of law.
Holy crap. Did that person really say that?!? What is with these Lockheed spokespeople’s comments?
…to keep people safer from TCE, please encourage them to contact:
Jody Milanese (millaneese) in Congresswoman Sue Kelly’s office at 202-225-5441
The TCE Blog has learned that Florida Congresswoman Katherine Harris (R) has agreed to join Sue Kelly and the others in their appeal to the EPA for implementation of safer regulations to better protect people from TCE.
By media accounts, Congresswoman Harris appears to have taken an interest in the TCE contamination that has so many concerned in Tallevast.
Thank you, Congresswoman Harris.
Downloadable here (610K PDF). Thanks to the Bradenton Herald for their ongoing coverage.
It appears fear of the growing plume in Tallevast has prompted the Manatee County commissioner’s office to strongly suggest to Lockheed Martin that they should bear the cost of relocating residents. Hard to tell how many residents we’re talking about. Interestingly, Lockheed says no:
As owners of the beryllium plant when the contamination was discovered in 2000, Lockheed has assumed responsibility for cleaning up the toxic mess.
But that responsibility, [Lockheed spokeswoman Meredith Rouse] Davis said, does not extend to relocating residents.
“We are not creating a risk to residents’ health and we are not impairing their use of their residential property,” Davis said.
Commissioner Amy Stein isn’t backing down and is fighting hard for residents…and using words like “culpable”:
“If Lockheed Martin knew the property was contaminated but withheld the information from residents, allowing people to continue drinking groundwater from private wells, yes, I think they are culpable,” Stein said.
“Just on the basis of the plume still being there now, why would you allow Tallevast residents to continue to live in that polluted environment when common sense tells you they have been impacted for decades?” Stein asked.
Stein is ready to take her concerns to Lockheed stockholders. Stein said she intends to buy Lockheed stock so she can speak at the next shareholders’ annual meeting.
Stein also said she plans to ask Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Colleen Castille to back the demand that Lockheed relocate Tallevast residents.
You can read more in the Bradenton Herald.
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