Case Studies of 1,4-Dioxane Releases, Treatment, and Drinking Water Contamination - Environmental Investigation and Remediation - page 391

and now it is 131 acres? My coni dence is just shrinking by the minute. Just when you think it can't get
any worse, it gets worse.” ( Bradenton-Herald , Radway and Wright, 2005)
Regarding the discovery of 1,4-dioxane late in the investigative process, an editorial in the
Bradenton-Herald expressed empathy for Tallevast residents:
One wonders why it took until now to test for [1,4-] dioxane—or other possible chemicals. Wouldn't
it be cheaper to check all potential pollutants at once rather than going back to previous drilling sites?
This drip-drip-drip process of discovering and releasing bad news leaves affected residents uneasy. The
very existence of a pollution threat was withheld from residents for almost four years. It's no wonder
that [Ms.] Washington and members of the community group FOCUS are suspicious of almost every-
thing they're being told. (Fishbein, 2005)
Some members of the Tallevast community are convinced that residents' health was impaired by
ABC's historical operations and the resulting groundwater contamination that affected their wells.
Some Tallevast residents point out that dozens of their neighbors have taken ill with cancer and
other health issues that they attribute to the presence of industrial contaminants in their well water.
The FDOH drafted a report on the potential health impacts to the community but found only four
cases of cancer, a i nding in stark contrast to an informal survey by residents that showed about 90
cases of cancer or other diseases in the Tallevast community (Fishbein, 2008).
When FDOH ofi cials met with FOCUS in March 2008, they acknowledged that their numbers,
based on a state database and i gures from a local hospital, were “wildly off the mark.” FDOH also
admitted that they had studied the wrong ZIP code: although Tallevast has a post ofi ce, most
Tallevast residents live in a Sarasota ZIP code (Fishbein, 2008). By using a statewide database to
review health records, FDOH administrators apparently missed important demographic features of
the Tallevast community.
Despite the adverse perceptions by the community, newspaper articles and regulatory records
clearly show that once the private well contamination was discovered, state and local regulators and
the responsible party provided a comprehensive response to ensure a safe supply of drinking water.
An account of the Tallevast case by Steve Lerner posted on the Collaborative on Health and the
Environment's website, * describes the response as follows:
Once news reports of the contamination began to appear, county ofi cials were galvanized into action. They
appeared in Tallevast at 8 p.m. one evening handing out i ve-gallon plastic bottles of water and warning
residents not to drink water if it came from a well. Subsequently, all wells in town were capped and above-
ground blue plastic pipes were installed as a “temporary hook-up” to county water lines. The plastic pipes
remain in place today, four years later. The increase in pressure from the county water hookup caused
numerous leaks in faucets and hot water heaters in Tallevast homes and the telephones of Laura Ward and
Wanda Washington began ringing with requests for help with plumbing problems. (Lerner, 2008)
The responsible party initiated a i nancial incentive program to abandon private water supply wells
in the area, and the Manatee County government restricts the construction of new wells in the affected
area. † The goals of both programs are to reduce the potential for exposure to affected groundwater and
to limit potential cross-connection between vertically distinct groundwater aquifer zones (Arcadis-
BBL, 2007c). More than 50 private wells were closed under this program (Arcadis-BBL, 2007a).
The community nevertheless remained dissatisi ed, and construction work to install monitoring
wells and pilot trenches associated with the groundwater remedial action apparently alarmed resi-
dents even more. Residents demanded that Tallevast remediation work stop until the community is
moved out of harm's way. Their cause was taken up by the Tallevast representative to the state
* Collaborative on Health and the Environment ( www.healthandenvironment.org ).
† In this context, “abandon” means to properly seal the well according to a technical standard that will prevent cross-
contamination.