After graduating from Florida State University with a journalism degree, William J. P. Smith, Jr. served in the USMC from 1956 until 1959, stationed at Camp Lejeune, NC, the majority of the time with the Globe as sports editor and acting editor of the largest Corps newspaper at the time. While there, he married, residing at the trailer park on the base and later in Midway Park, while fathering two girls.

In 1994, Bill was diagnosed with breast cancer, and had a radical modified mastectomy with 30 lymph nodes removed from his left side. He was treated with Tamoxifin for five years, and has had no reoccurance. It should be noted that there was no history of any kind of cancer in the Smith family. His former wife and two girls have had no symptoms of the disease.

On behalf of women, Bill has been a fund raiser and is the subject of two books, Living with Breast Cancer, the Story of 39 Women and One Man by Perry Colemore and Lisa Adelsberger, and Messages from Somewhere, Inspiring Stories of Life After 60 by Harriet May Savitz. He has also written an autobiographical screenplay on his experience. The irony of all of this is that Bill was part of the team at Xerox Corporation that introduced xeroradiography for the early detection of breast cancer in 1969 at Hutzel Hospital in Detroit. Every once in a while, he takes the press kit from his library shelf and shares it with his students, who find it hard to believe that men can contract the horrific disease.

Today, Bill resides in Tallahassee, FL with his wife Kathy, teaches at FSU and runs an integrated marketing communications consultancy, Huckleberry Finn Tomorrow.

• What are the odds of finding 4 cases of male breast cancer from the same contaminated military base?
• How many other military men have developed breast cancer?

During the last 20 years, Tallevast residents say dozens of their neighbors have died prematurely. Others are still fighting cancer and beryllium-related health issues.

But a draft Florida Department of Health report on the community blighted by more than 200 acres of polluted ground water found just four cases of cancer.

The report could hardly be more different from a survey by residents that showed about 90 cases of cancer or beryllium-related diseases in the mainly black community.

DOH officials who met with the neighborhood group FOCUS on Monday agreed that their numbers, based on a state database and figures from a local hospital, were wildly off the mark. They also admitted they had studied the wrong ZIP code.

(more)

Although Tallevast has a post office, most Tallevast residents live in a Sarasota ZIP code.

"That's one of the problems of dealing with a statewide database," said Randy Merchant, a DOH administrator. "It's hard to get a handle on what is happening in so small an area."

The results left community leaders upset that state officials had not worked more closely with them to ensure errors like this did not happen.

"We're angry," said Wanda Washington, vice president of FOCUS. "We're just not sure what road to take. No one ever came into the community to do a study. If you are doing it from behind a desk, you're going to miss a lot."

FOCUS' figures on incidences of cancer came from a door-to-door survey quizzing families about their medical histories.

The community of about 80 homes sits above more than 200 acres of polluted ground water left behind by the former American Beryllium Co., which built parts for nuclear warheads for the federal government for nearly 40 years.

State officials said they will likely get an epidemiologist to conduct a similar door-to-door survey.

The cost would be about $125,000, they said.

State Rep. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, said if the DOH cannot fund it he will look for other funding sources.

"I've committed myself to help see that that happens so that the question can be answered and a more accurate picture developed," Galvano said.

Residents in Tallevast have asked Lockheed Martin, the company responsible for the cleanup of the site, to pay for them to move. They have also filed several lawsuits against Lockheed and other companies that operated at the site seeking damages for health issues and falling property values.

Lockheed became the owner of the Tallevast site after the company acquired the former Loral company in 1996. It shut down the plant and sold the property, but not before discovering soil and ground-water pollution on and around the site.

In 2000, Lockheed notified county and state officials of the pollution, which included trichloroethylene, or TCE, a compound linked to liver and kidney cancer and other ailments.

Residents, who were not informed for almost four more years, continued to use well water. Their homes were switched to the county drinking water system in 2004.

FOCUS leaders said they would welcome state officials' repeating their survey.

"We think the state will be better at it," Washington said. "You need to put your feet on the ground and come out here and collect that information."

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Poisoned at Camp LeJeune, snookered by Uncle Sam

Bill Berlow
Associate Editor

Mike Partain, son and grandson of Marine Corps veterans, grew up steeped in traditional American values — a rock-solid Reagan Republican whose life, even before birth, began among the few, the proud, at Camp LeJeune, N.C.

But for the past year, the 40-year-old Tallahassee insurance claims adjuster's faith in his government has been shaken to its core.

He'd always assumed that Uncle Sam, first and foremost, had the health and welfare of U.S. citizens at the top of his priority list — especially if they'd worn the uniform.

Now he's much less sure.

Partain's crisis of doubt began a year ago, when his wife gave him "a hug that changed my life." She found a lump, which turned out to be a cancerous tumor. A 14-inch surgical scar where Partain's right breast used to be is the physical evidence of his breast cancer.

Less obvious is the psychological scar — both as a cancer survivor still undergoing treatment and as one who feels his government betrayed a trust.

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Not long after he learned he had cancer, Partain found out that his recurring rash since birth and his breast cancer — rare among men, particularly those with no family history of the illness — probably stemmed from his exposure during fetal development and the first year of his life to water contaminated with tetrachloroethylene, a solvent used in dry cleaning.

Just two months after Partain's wife felt the lump, the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry acknowledged that Marines and their families who between 1957 and 1987 lived in the LeJeune neighborhood where his family lived, drank water contaminated with extremely high levels of the carcinogenic chemical.

Partain and a network of former LeJeune residents who believe their serious health problems are due to the poisoning point out, however, that the government first knew of the contamination in the early 1980s — but did little or nothing to let the former Marines and their families know they were at risk.

"At this time last year, I was dying and I didn't know," Partain said. "The government knew I was dying and didn't tell me. That burns me up."

The LeJeune families can't sue the feds, since the government hasn't waived its sovereign-immunity protection. The military, meanwhile, is protected by the Ferris Doctrine, a 1950s-era ruling that protects the armed services from legal action by the men and women who serve — the idea being that if a soldier was wounded in battle because of a commanding officer's dumb decision, the country would be worse off if the government had to battle personal-injury lawyers as well as foreign enemies.

I first met Partain in the fall of 2006, several months before his diagnosis. He was the adjuster for an insurance claim we filed. A former teacher from Winter Haven, where he grew up, he and I talked of his deep regret about having to give up teaching to support his wife and four children. That conversation even helped inspire a column about ex-teachers in November of that year.

Last year, after he told me his illness motivated his involvement in a crusade to reveal the truth behind the LeJeune environmental debacle, the Tallahassee Democrat reported his story on July 9, a few weeks after a congressional hearing on the LeJeune families.

A congressional investigation is still under way, and Partain has gotten help from U.S. Rep. Allen Boyd, D-Monticello, who called Partain's story and that of other LeJeune families "deeply troubling, to say the least."

Boyd's office, which has tried to navigate the federal and military bureaucracies for Partain, said he is one of seven constituents in the congressman's North Florida district who are seeking more information related to the LeJeune contamination.

Now Partain reluctantly acknowledges that he's an activist, a word he's still not comfortable with because of his conservative upbringing and beliefs.

When I likened the experience of the LeJeune Marine families to military victims of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, Partain agreed.

"Defend, deny and delay," he said, describing the government's strategy in the face of claims that Agent Orange was responsible for a slew of veterans' illnesses. "And that's what they're doing to us."

Partain (strashni@comcast.net) was to share his story last night with vets at the American Legion post on Lake Ella. Even though he doesn't realistically expect compensation from the government, it's part of his personal commitment to spread the word about those exposed to the poison, estimated to number upwards of a million Americans.

It's one more example of a government's betrayal — always shocking, but, sadly, no longer surprising and, as Partain says, quickly forgotten.

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A dry-cleaning shop on busy U.S. 1 has been proposed as a federal Superfund site after tests found nearby soil and groundwater contaminated with hazardous chemicals.

An Environmental Protection Agency official said the site presents no immediate health risk, but Broward County's pollution prevention chief said he isn't so sure.

Flash Cleaners, at 4131 N. Federal Highway [map], polluted the ground with a variety of chemicals used in the dry-cleaning business, most likely through spills and disposal of waste through a septic system, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Tests of soil and groundwater found concentrations of several chemicals exceeding federal safety standards, including dichloroethene, trichloroethene, tetrachloroethylene and vinyl chloride.

Although the shop still takes in dry cleaning, it no longer processes it on site.

Barbara Schuster, project manager for the EPA, said there's no immediate danger to public health. Eight drinking-water wells, serving Hillsboro Beach and other portions of northern Broward County, are within a mile of the site. But Schuster said there is little danger to the wells because they lie northwest or southwest of the site and the groundwater flows east, away from the wells.

Jeff Halsey, Broward County's director of pollution prevention and remediation, said there is not enough information to determine how much danger is posed by the underground spread of hazardous chemicals. Among the possible health effects of these chemicals are liver and kidney damage, neurological diseases and cancer, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Until we can get an assessment done and know exactly where the plume is going, we're going to be very, very concerned," he said.

(more)

The exact cause of the contamination is unknown, although environmental inspectors documented unsafe practices at the shop, according to EPA records. They found machinery and waste containers on a bare concrete floor without secondary containment. Wastewater from the dry-cleaning work was discharged into an on-site septic tank, which caused contamination of soil and water, according to the EPA.

The Superfund program, established after the discovery of thousands of tons of hazardous waste in the Love Canal neighborhood of Niagara Falls, N.Y., takes on the most serious contaminated sites. Under the program, the EPA tries to find the parties responsible for the pollution and make them pay for cleanup. Failing that, the Superfund pays, although its funds have dwindled since the expiration of a special tax on industries that pollute.

The owners of the shop, John and Susan Ferrel, say they didn't cause the contamination and can't afford to pay for cleaning it up. They bought the store in 1977 after working there for a year, and they've worked there ever since. They said they disposed of the waste properly and have been forced to pay for a preliminary environmental study because a state inspector found a small amount of dry-cleaning chemicals at the bottom of an unused machine.

"Because of that one thing, we spent a lot of money over the years trying to do what the county wanted and what the EPA wanted," Susan Ferrel said, speaking from their home in Sebastian. "We just can't afford this. It will take all our retirement."

The EPA will conduct a study of the site and figure out a cleanup plan. Among the most likely options are digging up the soil and taking it to a landfill or pumping up the water and treating it to remove the contaminants. It is unknown what will happen to the business.

The one-story, peach-colored shop stands just back from the noisy traffic of Federal Highway. An American flag hangs in the window. A sign in the door states that it is closed Monday. Behind the shop is the Beacon Heights neighborhood, consisting of small apartment buildings and one-story houses.

"This is the first I've heard of it," said Bob Manko, standing on the porch of his house on Northeast 42 Street. "If there's something bad there, it ought to be cleaned up."

But he said he hoped a small business wouldn't be harmed by having to spend an excessive amount, unless the cleanup is necessary.

"Common sense should prevail," he said.

David Fleshler can be reached at dfleshler@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4535.

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• Sen. Schumer calls on EPA to clean up local TCE sites
  Times Herald-Record, NY


• Schumer: Sidney sites contaminated
  The Daily Star, NY


• Get it right - Tallevast cleanup must be thorough
  Bradenton Herald, FL


• Experts claim plan to clean up Tallevast flawed
  The Bradenton Herald, FL


• Schumer wants EPA to clean up dangerous water contaminant
  Herkimer Evening Telegram, NY


• Hawaiian Activists Fight US Military Bases
  Political Affairs Magazine, NY


• Schumer: Feds dragging their feet setting tougher drinking water and clean-up standards
  Little Falls Evening Times, NY


• Schumer blasts EPA over handling of pollutant
  Poughkeepsie Journal, NY


• IBM workers' records pushed for TCE study; Researcher cites worldwide interest
  Press & Sun-Bulletin, NY


• IBM Cancer Study Could Apply to Endicott
  WCIZ TV News, NY


• Protect Victor residents from poison
  Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, NY


• Victor needs swift cleanup
  Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, NY


• Leaders seek action on TCE, cite Victor
  Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, NY


• State to open cancer cluster study in Victor
  Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, NY


• Democrats Stepping Up Scrutiny of DOD Environmental Compliance
  InsideDefense (subscription), DC


• EPA settles for $1.7M in CA groundwater cleanup of San Gabriel Valley Area 2 Superfund Site
  Water Technology Online, NY


• Village of Hempstead feud lingers
  Newsday, NY


• Study works on bacteria-eating toxin
  United Press International -


• TI faces toxics lawsuit re: Hamilton Park, TX
  EETimes.com


• Victor pollution clues come up dry
  Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, NY


• US EPA settles with Poway firm for $63100 over toxic chemical
  WebWire (press release), GA


• Council waives water cleanup in three districts
  Fort Worth Star Telegram, TX


• Interview with Dr. Michael Gros, a victim of water contamination at Camp Lejeune
  World Socialist Web Site, MI

Cleaning up the majority of the polluted ground water in Tallevast could take 30 years, and getting it all could take a century, Lockheed Martin officials say. But some experts fear that the Tallevast pollution will never be cleaned up completely.

The investigation of the Tallevast toxic waste plume is over, state environmental regulators announced Monday. Lockheed Martin Corp., the state decided, has adequately defined the plume.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has approved Lockheed Martin Corp.'s latest plume maps as final despite objections raised by independent reviews of the defense giant's data.

The approval was good news for Lockheed scientists who have been trying to define the plume to state requirements for the past six years.

[...]

Those impacted by DEP's decision - Tallevast residents and businesses - have 21 days to appeal the DEP decision with the Department's Office of General Counsel in Tallahassee. Failure to file an appeal within the 21-day period would constitute a waiver of any right to an administrative hearing, the approval letter said.

The clock started ticking, DEP said, with the receipt of the letter from William Kutash, professional geologist administrator for DEP's Southwest District.

Copies of Kutash's letter addressed to Tina Armstrong, Lockheed's program manager for the Tallevast site, were sent via e-mail Monday to leaders of FOCUS - Family Oriented Community United Strong -a resident advocacy group in Tallevast.

[...]

Independent experts, some county officials and Tallevast residents united under FOCUS have consistently questioned Lockheed's data on the plume.

Those questions over the past two years- including a review by Wilma Subra, an environmental advocate and chemist who studied Lockheed's data for the Herald - pushed the DEP to require Lockheed to do additional testing that led to the current estimate of the plume's size at 200 acres.

Originally Lockheed maintained that the plume covered just 50 acres and was confined to the plant site.

[...]

Washington said FOCUS would send the letter to the legal team representing more than 300 Tallevast residents and former residents in a lawsuit against Lockheed and others that claims damage from the plume.

[...]

Lockheed has maintained from the beginning that the plume poses no health risk to residents and will have minimal if any impact on property values.

MONI Holdings LLC alleges the companies that sold the solvents — not the ones that bought and used them — are responsible for the pollution.

It says solvent manufacturers told customers to discard the chemical — trichloroethene, or TCE — by spreading it on the ground and allowing it to evaporate, according to the suit.

The results, according to the suit, were disastrous.

[...]

"MONI is wholly without fault for the contamination of the groundwater with TCE . . .," according to the suit.

• Did Dow and others tell customers to dump TCE in the ground? If so, did they do so in writing?
• Is MONI conceding that they did, indeed, dump TCE in the ground?
• Since litigation is pending over TCE-induced diseases resulting from the Lake Mary plant, could manufacturers be held liable for causing these diseases?
• Could manufacturers be held liable for TCE-induced disease caused by other contaminated sites across the country?
• Could manufacturers also be held liable for nation-wide clean-up costs?

The people of Tallevast are in serious trouble. For the past three years, the members of this small community in Florida have been fighting for their lives against Lockheed Martin Corp. - one of the world's largest defense contractors. In 2000, the company discovered that a faulty sump at a former beryllium plant had leaked toxins, contaminating the community's water and soil. While Lockheed has agreed to clean up the mess, they refuse to move the residents out of the area, leaving them to fend for themselves. For years residents have been struggling to uncover the truth about the damage to their community - to protect their health, and the health of their children.

[...]

The residents of Tallevast need to be moved. Not only has it taken a toll on their health and emotional wellbeing, but the contamination has significantly decreased their property value leaving them stranded. Since these people cannot afford to move themselves out of harms way, there needs to be an intervention. According to the Bradenton Herald, Manatee County has agreed to facilitate a buyout of the Tallevast property owners if Lockheed Martin Corp. is willing to help relocate residents. Lockheed has refused. So now it is up to us to show them that this is not acceptable. Please go the the Take Action section and help the people of Tallevast.

A third review found Lockheed Martin Corp.'s latest assessment of the Tallevast plume failed to fully describe the extent of the contamination as the defense giant claimed.

Moreover, Lockheed was premature in its conclusion that risk of human exposure to the contamination is not a concern, said Michael Graves, a geologist and principal consultant for Environmental Sciences and Technologies (EST) of Lakeland.

[...]

"We now have three reviews of Lockheed's data that all reach the conclusion that there is still critical work to be done," said Wanda Washington, vice president of FOCUS. "How much more time will it take? Lockheed has been at it for so long. Time is important. Our lives are at stake. The dangers don't go on hold because of Lockheed's timing."

Graves' criticism echoed two other reviews of the Sara III report - a review by Tim Varney, the independent consultant advising Tallevast residents, and a review by environmentalist and chemist Wilma Subra, who analyzed the data for The Herald.

[...]

Ed Cottingham, lead attorney for more than 300 Tallevast residents who have filed a lawsuit against Lockheed, said he had not had a chance to study Graves' report.

[...]

Washington hopes DEP and Lockheed will hold public meetings to address the SARA III report.

She also hopes people take notice of the three reviews of Lockheed's data.

"How much more will it take for someone to step forward and say, 'Hey, these people are in trouble,' " Washington said. "The more time passes, the more people could be harmed."

1. According to Lockheed Martin Corp., Addendum 3 to the Site Assessment Report contains sufficient information for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to base an approval of the Site Assessment phase. Such an approval by the DEP will allow Lockheed to proceed with the preparation of a Final Remedial Action Plan. However, the latest report lacks key information and in some cases includes inaccurate information. It should not be the basis on which to proceed to a Final Remedial Action Plan phase.

2. DEP must require that the lacking information be generated, the inaccurate information corrected, and a fourth Addendum to the Site Assessment be issued and available for public comment, prior to consideration of allowing Lockheed to move to the Final Remedial Action Plan phase...

(Show more key findings)

3. One of the objectives of the Site Assessment is to evaluate current exposure and potential risks of exposure to humans and the environment, including multiple pathways of exposure. The site assessment failed to include information on vapor intrusion and volatile organics being transported into homes in the residential areas, churches, businesses and the community center from Volatile Organic Chemicals (VOCs) in the shallow groundwater.

4. The VOCs in the shallow groundwater pose a risk to human health through inhalation. That exposure pathway must be evaluated as an important part of the site assessment.

5. Lockheed has acknowledged that although VOCs in the groundwater are a potential concern, inhalation is not considered to represent a significant exposure pathway because air concentrations are presumed to be low. Presumption of low concentrations of toxic chemicals is not acceptable.

6. Lockheed used the low concentrations presumption to omit the study of groundwater vapor intrusion into homes.

7. Lockheed used the lack of human exposure to groundwater contaminates to justify not considering relocation of residents since the community supposedly no longer uses individual water wells.

8. Lockheed failed to evaluate the vapor intrusion pathway of the toxic off gassing of VOCs into residential homes.

9. If the FDEP does not require the vapor intrusion pathway and indoor air quality to be investigated as a part of the Site Assessment, the Remedial Action Plan will fail to address a critical human health exposure pathway and continue to allow the community to be exposed to the toxic chemicals of concern.

10. The groundwater table beneath the residential area is less than 5 feet below the ground surface. Toxic volatile organic chemicals in excess of criterion are present in the shallow groundwater beneath the residential areas at depths of 0 to 30 feet below ground surface in the Upper Surficial Aquifer System and 35 to 45 feet below ground surface in the Lower Surficial Aquifer System.

11. The Upper Surficial Aquifer System groundwater 15 to 20 feet below ground level in the residential areas contains 1,4-Dioxane, PCE, TCE, cis-1,2-DCE, 1,1-DCE and 1,1-DCA in concentrations in excess of Screening Criteria.

12. The Lower Surficial Aquifer System groundwater 35 feet below the ground surface in the residential area contains 1,4-Dioxane, PCE, TCE, cis-1,2-DCE, 1,1-DCE and 1,1-DCA in excess of Screening Criteria.

13. FDEP must require that the transport of volatile organic chemicals from the shallow groundwater beneath the residential areas into the homes of people living on top of the groundwater plume and the human exposure pathway be evaluated as part of the Site Assessment.

14. It is critical to evaluate this human health pathway during the Site Assessment phase and not allow the Remedial Action phase to proceed until the magnitude and extent of human health exposure is defined.

15. This evaluation could lead to an additional recommendation in Section 5.2 of the Site Assessment Report that would require an evaluation of groundwater off gassing impacts to human health that could result in relocation of residential areas over the groundwater plume.

16. One of the significant findings of the Site Assessment Report is that the horizontal and vertical extent of COCs above GCTLs in site groundwater has been delineated. But the vertical extent of the groundwater contamination plume has not been determined for the entire plume area. There are not adequate wells below groundwater strata exceeding GCTLs throughout the plume to define the vertical extent of the plume.

17. Two other significant findings of the Site Assessment Report are that the vertical extent of chemicals of concern or COCs above GCTLs in site groundwater is limited to within approximately 200 feet below ground surface water and in the Lower Arcadian Formation Sands and Floridan Aquifer System is not impacted with site COCs above groundwater cleanup targeted levels.

18. These findings fail to present the fact that chemicals of concern have migrated into the Lower Arcadian Formation Sands and Floridan Aquifer System as documented by testing of the minimal number of monitoring wells installed in the two water bearing zones.

19. Chemicals of concern including TCE and PCE are present in groundwater formations deeper than 200 feet below ground surface and have been detected in groundwater to depths of 365 to 385 feet below ground surface.

20. Chemicals of concern have impacted the Lower Arcadian Formation Sands and the Floridan Aquifer System.

21. Samples of private water wells were collected and analyzed as part of the Site Assessment process. Lockheed made a decision to not include some of the results in the Site Assessment report and will submit the data to the DEP under separate cover. This is not acceptable.

22. The 2006 Private Well Survey Data that was submitted to DEP under separate cover on May 22 indicates that samples from several wells to the north and east of the Booth well showed contamination, yet those wells, in particular Well 98 on Trey Desenberg's property, arenot within the plume. This indicates that both the horizontal as well as vertical extent of the plume has not been defined and needs further study.

23. Test results of private wells not included in the Site Assessment contained concentrations of 1,4-Dioxane, TCE and cis-1,2-DCE in concentrations, in some cases, in excess of groundwater targeted cleanup levels.

24. Lockheed has suggested that these private wells were beyond the limits of site impacted groundwater and beyond monitoring wells which had non-detectable concentrations of the chemicals of concern found on the former American Beryllium Company site.

25. There are many individual plume maps for specific chemicals within the overall composite plume map. Examination of individual plume maps indicate that other plumes traced back to the plant may be contaminating those private wells.

26. The entire Private Water Well Data set must be required to be provided in the Site Assessment Report and the DEP must require that Lockheed do additional testing to delineate groundwater contamination outside the current plumes and determine if the source material for the plumes of the unreported private water wells are interconnected to the former beryllium facility plumes or originated from the former plant.

27. Only one on-site surface water sample has been collected and analyzed throughout the testing and evaluation phases of the former ABC facility site. No on-site or off-site sediment samples have been collected and tested for COCs. This constitutes a lack of data on which to fully characterize the former ABC facility site and the surrounding area known to be impacted by the contaminated groundwater plume.

28. Sediment sampling and analysis for COCs must be performed in order to complete the characterization needed to finalize the Site Assessment phase.

29. DEP should require a more proactive remedy than the cleanup strategies proposed by Lockheed in the site assessment. That proactive remedy should include: relocation, contaminated groundwater removal or bioremediation at hot spot areas in addition to the Interim Remedial Action, and removal of contaminated soil from on the industrial site and from the residential yards.

SOURCE: Wilma Subra, Subra Company, "Comments on Site Assessment Report Addendum 3, Former ABC Facility, Tallevast, Florida, submitted to DEP by Lockheed Martin on April 26."

(hide findings)

Attorneys representing Tallevast residents have requested documents from Lockheed Martin Corp. covering virtually every aspect of operation and handling of hazardous materials [i.e. TCE] at the former Loral American Co. plant.

In a response filed with the court on Tuesday, Lockheed's attorneys called the discovery demands overly broad, vague and inconsistent with Florida law.

[...]

Tallevast residents have long suspected that the contamination at 1520 Tallevast Road is linked to the American Beryllium plume Lockheed now says covers more than 200 acres. Furthermore, Tallevast residents believe that there may a link between Lockheed and the beryllium plant that predates the defense giant's acquisition of Loral in 1996.

Not true, said a Lockheed spokeswoman Thursday.

[...]

Bruce Denson, of the St. Petersburg law firm of Whittemore Denson and a member of the Tallevast legal team, said the requests for discovery documents are well within Florida law.

"Everything we have asked for we consider to be relevant or will lead to relevant information," Denson said Thursday.

Posted on Mon, Aug. 29, 2005

Tests: Vapor levels too low
Skeptics question the methodology used in the study
DONNA WRIGHT
Herald Staff Writer

TALLEVAST - Contradicting residents' fears that their health is endangered from a 131-acre plume of toxic pollution under their community, state and local health experts report no evidence of poisonous indoor vapors in Tallevast.

Across the nation, the Pentagon is taking extraordinary steps to limit the military's accountability for a 50-year legacy of pollution, a USA TODAY investigation finds...

Since 2001, Pentagon officials have stalled cleanups at scores of military sites where contamination from training and manufacturing has fouled soil and water. They've used their political clout to sidetrack new regulations that could force the services to spend hundreds of millions of dollars more to deal with pollution. And they've challenged state and federal regulators' power to make the military obey existing environmental laws...

Four years after President Bush campaigned on a pledge to make the military "comply with environmental laws by which all of us must live," the White House is the Pentagon's chief ally in pushing for relief from such laws.

Within the administration, "it's no secret that the EPA is running into this wall with the Pentagon," says Linda Fisher, who served two years as Bush's deputy EPA administrator — the agency's second-in- command — before returning to private work last year.

"Is the Department of Defense taking (regulatory disputes) to the White House more often? Absolutely," says Fisher, who has held environmental jobs in every Republican administration since Ronald Reagan's. "Is the Department of Defense more powerful than the EPA? Yes."

Defense officials say state and federal environmental agencies have too much power to demand costly and intrusive cleanups on military land. The Pentagon wants to cut its $4 billion a year in environmental costs — less than 1% of defense spending — by gaining more authority over where and how cleanups will be done.

"Some of these regulators are doing wrongheaded things based on poor scientific evidence," says Raymond DuBois, deputy undersecretary of Defense for installations and environment. "Shouldn't we, as stewards of the taxpayers' money, decide how we're going to clean up?"

•The Pentagon is thwarting environmental agencies' efforts to set cleanup rules.

Since 2001, the armed services have delayed more than 70 federal cleanup agreements that would dictate the scope and timing of restoration at contaminated military sites...

The Pentagon also is fighting EPA efforts to set new pollution limits on two military contaminants: perchlorate, a munitions ingredient, and trichloroethylene (TCE), a solvent. After military officials complained to the White House that the EPA's studies overstated the chemicals' health risks, the agency opted to wait for years of additional study before making new rules.

State environmental regulators are facing military resistance, too. In Colorado, California, Ohio and Minnesota, the services are fighting state efforts to restrict the future use of contaminated military property. In California, Florida, Hawaii and Alaska, the military has challenged the authority of state officials to fine the armed forces for pollution problems.

•The EPA is cutting efforts to make the military comply with environmental laws.

•The Pentagon is spending less on cleanups.

"It's not a growing plume," Lockheed spokeswoman Gail Rymer said. "It's that, as we were able to install more monitoring wells, we were better able to delineate the plume. We feel confident that we've reached the edge of the plume."

Representatives from Family Oriented Community United Strong, or FOCUS, a residents' advocacy group, say they've heard before that the edge of the plume had been defined but then subsequent reports from Lockheed to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection showed a larger area.

"It was no surprise that (the plume) has grown," said Wanda Washington, vice president of FOCUS. "If Lockheed says it's grown to 200 acres, I'd be willing to believe that it's grown to 300 or more."

...

Washington said FOCUS wants Lockheed to fund another study, this time by a FOCUS-hired geologist.

"We'll be satisfied when our guy tells us he thinks he's found the end of it," Washington said of the plume. "We're not trying to make a bad situation worse, we're just looking for the truth. We don't have the trust in Lockheed or their data."

Everyone in Manatee County should be concerned about the scope and potential impact of the toxic plume under Tallevast and . . .That's the point. We don't know the boundaries or depth yet. And we deserve to know. And remedies must begin immediately.

More than three dozen former workers at a defunct telecommunications plant say they were poisoned by contaminated water they unwittingly used for everything from making coffee to washing their hands. The water came from the ground below them, polluted by toxic chemicals used to make phone equipment but then dumped on the property, according to a series of lawsuits. The chemicals worked their way into the drinking-water supply that was pumped back into the building, according to the suits.

The employees became seriously ill, all but a few with cancer. At least four have died during the plant's 35-year history.

So far, 13 workers or their survivors are suing, but they are not suing the suspected polluters. They are trying a different legal tactic, one designed to get money without assigning blame. Their lawyers say that is necessary because several companies operated the plant through the years. One of those companies made them seriously ill, but they don't know precisely which, their lawyers say. "You can't really prove on which day which exposure caused them to get cancer," said Steve Eichenblatt, a lawyer representing the group.

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The now-idle plant, at 400 Rinehart Road, was run by at least five companies or business ventures after General Dynamics Corp. built it for subsidiary Stromberg-Carlson Corp. in 1968 in a former orange grove. Successors include United Technologies Corp., Marconi Communications Inc. and Siemens AG. Siemens operated the plant for more than a decade before closing it in 2003, according to court records, though about 200 employees still work in an office building on the edge of the site. Although the owners changed, the work force of about 2,000 at any given time manufactured the same thing through the years: telephone-network switches.

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Nearly all of the 13 who are suing were diagnosed with cancer, including kidney cancer and leukemia, said Paul Byron, a partner of Overchuck, De Marco, Byron, Overchuck, P.A., one of the Orlando-area law firms representing the employees.