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New Hot Line Answers Contamination Questions In Raytheon Plant Area

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TBO.com

Published: May 7, 2008

If you live in neighborhoods near the St. Petersburg Raytheon plant, you can call a toll-free phone number for answers to health questions about groundwater contamination around the plant.

Call 1-877-798-2772, a Department of Health switchboard, and ask for Randy Merchant or Elizabeth Tull. They generally are available 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, and messages left will be returned within one business day, Merchant said.

A toxic plume of industrial waste discovered 17 years ago is now coursing through groundwater under areas including the Azalea neighborhood, according to samples drawn from test wells.

There are hundreds of private irrigation wells within the area of possible contamination. However, neither the state Department of Environmental Protection nor Raytheon Network Centric Systems has alerted homeowners to the south, News Channel 8 reported in March.

State health and environmental groups are investigating. Raytheon, which now owns the plant linked to the plume, is scheduled to deliver a report by the end of the month. Raytheon inherited the pollution problem from E-Systems, owner of the plant at 1501 72nd Street North St.

The state is working "to assess the health risk from the use of shallow irrigation wells for watering lawns and home gardens, washing cars and the like," said Merchant, administrator of the health department's health assessments team.

The team looks at each chemical linked to a site and its known health effects, then issues findings and recommendations.

For information, visit www.doh.state.fl.us or www.pinellashealth.com.

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