Raytheon neighbors fear cleanup will be as bad as pollution

Finding out last week that it will take anywhere from eight to 78 years to clean up pollution under their homes was bad enough. Now, homeowners who live near the Raytheon facility in St. Petersburg are worried what kind of harm the cleanup may bring to their neighborhood.

At a meeting of the Azalea Neighborhood Association on Thursday night, about 50 property owners spent 90 minutes discussing a proposed cleanup of the groundwater plume that's been spreading under their neighborhood for years.

Raytheon knew well in advance about the meeting, but no one from the company attended.

Homeowner Maria Sullivan says Raytheon has done a poor job of keeping residents informed about its pollution assessment and cleanup.

"Absolutely," Sullivan said. "Raytheon held that meeting ... about a year ago, and we haven't heard from them since."

Raytheon spokesman Jon Kasle said the company plans to participate in a forum hosted by the Department of Environmental Protection sometime this spring or summer.

"Raytheon remains committed to working openly with the community," Kasle said.

The company's residential neighbors say they're not happy about how long it's going to take to pump and treat millions of gallons of water tainted with industrial waste, but they're also worried about the impact of that pumping on their irrigation wells.

At Thursday's neighborhood meeting at the Azalea Baptist Church on 22nd Avenue, they voiced concerns ranging from dried-up wells to sinkholes and saltwater intrusion.

State Sen. Charlie Justice encouraged residents to keep political pressure on Gov. Charlie Crist and the DEP managers who are overseeing the cleanup. Justice wrote a letter to DEP Secretary Michael Sole saying Raytheon's timeframe for cleanup is unacceptable.

"We were just quite frankly stunned," Justice told the residents. "Absolutely stunned that someone would logically say, 'Yeah, 78 years, what's the problem with that?' "

Justice and state Rep. Rick Kriseman are sponsoring legislation that would require polluters to notify nearby property owners and public officials about pollution so that no one gets blindsided like some residents near Raytheon.

Justice says he was contacted Thursday by U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson's office offering to get the EPA more involved in expediting the cleanup.

St. Petersburg Councilman Herb Polson told homeowners he's made it a policy of not discussing the Raytheon problem because he doesn't want to get dragged into the ongoing class action lawsuit filed on behalf of 1,300 property owners surrounding the site.

Polson did say he does plan to meet with Nelson in Washington next week to discuss the problem.