Small-town residents living on deadly ground

Small-town residents living on deadly ground

Residents of Tallevast blame toxins that leaked into the ground and their water supply as a factor in the 80 cancers of family members and neighbors over the years, and they want someone held accountable.

Posted on Sat, May. 03, 2008
BY RONNIE GREENE


TALLEVAST --
In this deeply rooted village in Southwest Florida, it's not unusual to find generations of the same family living doors apart. Now these lifelong settlers are bracing for their hamlet to die.

The water in this black community tucked between Bradenton and Sarasota is poisoned with cancer-causing chemicals leaked from an old beryllium plant that anchors the neighborhood of 80 homes.

The health toll is still being gauged, but the residents have cause to fear the worst.

For more than three years, neither the plant's owner nor Florida state regulators who had learned of the leak bothered to tell them.

''I feel cheated,'' said Laura Ward. ``The treatment we have gotten in this community is deplorable.''

Ward was the first Tallevast resident to learn of the toxic chemicals beneath the community. Her first clue came when she happened to look out her window one day in 2003 to see a giant rig drilling monitoring wells on her property.

In time, she and others would learn of the pollution's reach: Tallevast, a century-old village that covers just 1.5 square miles, is sitting on a 200-acre toxic plume, filled with sick residents and confronted with sinking property values.

more...

http://www.miamiherald.com/540/story/518863.html