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Raytheon Site Pollution Prompts Vows Of Aid

News Channel 8 photo by TODD DAVIS

Sen. Bill Nelson, standing, talks with Azalea residents about their concerns of a chemical plume of pollutions from the Raytheon Plant in their neighborhood.

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By GALINA TISHCHENKO

News Channel 8

Published: July 14, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - People living in the Azalea neighborhood got promises of help from the federal government and the state Legislature today in their efforts to deal with groundwater contamination from the Raytheon plant site.

Officials including U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson spoke to about 100 people at the Azalea Community Center, where residents also learned Azalea Elementary School has been added to a list of buildings to be tested for signs of indoor air pollution.

"If I get the federal Environmental Protection Agency involved, things can get done quicker and they can get done in a more comprehensive coordinated way," Nelson said.

Azalea residents say government officials failed to inform them about possible contamination of their irrigation wells 15 years ago and didn't try to fix it when they first learned about it.

"This could have been stopped in the bud when it was still on Raytheon's property," said Annette Kraut, a local resident of almost 19 years.

State Sen. Charlie Justice, who attended the meeting at Nelson's invitation, promised that the notification problem will be addressed by the Legislature.

"Next session will not pass without us doing legislation that will create a better notification system so this will not happen again."

District director Deborah Getzoff of the state Department of Environmental Protection says the department will put more effort into resolving the problem to win back people's trust.

"I think what we have to do is work very hard through this cleanup process," she said.

Nelson said federal participation will help speed the cleanup and health assessments, and ease citizen concerns about the pollution.

"They want something done," he said. "That's why I am here."

According to both Raytheon and health department risk assessments there is no immediate risk in using groundwater for irrigation purposes.

Testing has shown traces of chemicals in dozens of irrigation wells, and 13 of those wells exceed the state limits for groundwater contamination.

The source of the pollution was a defense plant later acquired by Raytheon Network Centric Systems.

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