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State Legislator Probes Delays Of Toxic Plume Cleanup In St. Pete

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TBO.com

Published: May 20, 2008

A state lawmaker is asking Florida environmental officials to explain a series of delays in cleaning up groundwater pollution that was first identified more than 13 years ago at a west St. Petersburg plant.

The plume of contaminants was the subject of a 1995 agreement between the plant's owner at the time, E-Systems, and the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Yet even now, says state Rep. Rick Kriseman, a St. Petersburg Democrat, it could be 90 days or more before a new proposal is submitted for dealing with the problem.

The proposal is being developed by the plant's current owner, Raytheon Network Centric Systems. A first step is an assessment of how far the plume has spread, due by the end of this month. Kriseman wants the next step wrapped up before the 90-day deadline.

"Where was the site cleanup? Where was the order from FDEP requiring Raytheon to take affirmative action to prevent the plume from further movement?" Kriseman said in a May 16 letter to the department secretary, Michael W. Sole.

The letter includes a timeline from the state that begins with the 1995 agreement and notes that Raytheon bought the E-Systems property that same year.

Kriseman said the department has known since 2001 that the plume is moving, citing as evidence a letter that was drafted but never signed by a district chief with the department.

This letter, Kriseman said, is "conspicuously absent from the timeline …"

This discovery, he said, should have moved the department and Raytheon to act quickly. Yet it took Raytheon until the following year to submit a proposal for dealing with the spread of the plume and three years after that for the department to review the proposal, Kriseman said.

There are hundreds of private irrigation wells within the area of possible contamination, which includes the Azalea neighborhood. A growing number of test wells are showing signs of contamination. No threat to drinking water has been identified.

Kriseman also asks in his letter why more wasn't done to alert people living in the contamination area.

Neither the state nor Raytheon informed homeowners to the south of the plant until after the spread of the plume there was revealed in a March report by News Channel 8 and The Tampa Tribune.

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