The Tallevast Community located between US 301 and 15th Street, near the Sarasota-Bradenton airport, was founded in the 1800’s by a handful of agricultural workers from North Florida and other southern states who came to Tallevast and then stayed. Many in the community descend from these original families. The community functioned as a tight-knit community with two community churches for years.

 

In 1961, the Loral Corporation’s American Beryllium Company (“ABC”) acquired the facility at 1600 Tallevast Road, and many members of the community went to work at the facility. The ABC facility manufactured parts for weapons, including nuclear weapons. In1996 Lockheed Martin Corporation acquired the facility.

 

In the late 1990s community leaders decided to form an organization to focus on revitalization and redevelopment in the community after several land use and zoning decisions were passed or proposed for the area but not supported by the community. The organization was incorporated with the State of Florida as a nonprofit organization with the name, FOCUS Family Oriented Community United, Strong Faith-Based Community Development, Incorporated, but later shortened to Family Oriented Community United Strong, Inc. (FOCUS). In the beginning FOCUS’s primary efforts were aimed at housing, employment, community services, and redevelopment.

 

Then in 2003, Lockheed Martin donated a trailer to an area church, Bryant Chapel. While trying to pull permits to renovate the trailer, heavy metals were discovered. Around the same time, FOCUS leader Laura Ward saw unidentified men on her property installing a well. When she inquired what they were doing, they told her they were installing a well, but she told them she was the property owner, already had a well, and had not requested another. One of the men indicated that it was not a well for water use, but a monitoring well due to the contamination at the former Loral site. These were the first that FOCUS or the community had heard about the contamination. FOCUS began investigating with county and state officials and records, which led to the discovery that Lockheed Martin, who had acquired the facility from Loral, was working with the state to define and clean up contamination at the site and in the surrounding community. At this point, the state had approved a cleanup plan for what had been determined to be a roughly 5-acre area of contamination. Officials also informed the community that there were no risks in the community due to the contamination being largely contained on site and the fact that no one in the community was using private wells for water use. Both issues were immediately contested by FOCUS and proven to be inaccurate.

 

The discovery of the contamination at the site and further into the community shifted FOCUS’s efforts. While revitalization and redevelopment remain core goals, these efforts have been heavily thwarted by the contamination. For eight years, FOCUS actively engaged with local, state, and federal officials and Lockheed Martin to assure that the contamination was further investigated, and the cleanup efforts considered the actual risks and impacts on those living in Tallevast. Because of FOCUS’s efforts, the contamination was ultimately determined to affect more than 200 acres and additional cleanup requirements were required of Lockheed Martin.

 

To get to this point, FOCUS worked tirelessly showing the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) the inadequacy of more than three of Lockheed Martin’s Site Assessment Reports and more than four of their cleanup plans. Ultimately, in 2011 despite objections by FOCUS and its technical experts, the FDEP approved a cleanup plan for soil and groundwater contamination covering more than 200 acres of the community and three distinct aquifer systems and seven separate layers of aquifers, that is projected to take 50 – 100 years to complete. Such cleanup activities are being performed throughout the community, including on many residents’ private property. For these reasons, FOCUS has remained involved in tracking the cleanup and assisting the community in dealing with the disruptions and challenges associated with the cleanup.

 

In 2020 after more than five years into the cleanup, it was clear that the cleanup is not working as Lockheed predicted and in fact, many of the communities’ identified deficiencies are now acutely obvious. Additionally, around the same time 300+ acres in the community, which had historically been a small family farm and open space were rezoned industrial. The community is growing weary of a future which means for most of them spending their lifetime surrounded by contamination, afraid to renovate their homes or redevelop the community because they fear further exposure. Therefore, it is time for the community to stop standing still and to stop being reactive to decisions. This resulted in FOCUS shifting its priorities and tactics. FOCUS is again rallying the community to advocate for better cleanup at the site, but also exploring proactive alternatives to help alleviate the associated community burdens. More details on FOCUS current program work can be found (insert link to program page).