Tallevast residents can't use their irrigation wells to water their yards because of a underground plume of groundwater contamination.

Yet they look down the road and see sprinklers at a nearby golf course spraying the greens.

And they wonder why.

The plume that runs under their homes runs under the golf course and nearby airport property, too.

"Why then, are the golf course wells still in use?" Tallevast leaders ask.

Then, there is the question of the big fountain in the pond in front of the old Loral American Beryllium Co. plant, the source of the contamination plume.

Tallevast residents worry the mist that sprays continually from that fountain could be making them sick. They want to know if anyone has tested the pond water or the golf course irrigation wells.

Gail E. Rymer, director of corporate and community affairs for Lockheed Martin, said Thursday that the pond and golf course irrigation wells are not contaminated. Lockheed is the former owner of the beryllium plant and has assumed responsibility for cleaning up the mess.

The pond, Rymer said, collects storm water runoff. No springs or wells feed the pond. The water has been tested and found to be clean.

Rymer also said the irrigation wells on the golf course have been tested by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Health.

Those wells, too, are clean, according to the state tests, Rymer said.

The Herald was not able to confirm late Thursday with the state agencies that those tests had actually been done.

DEP spokeswoman Pam Yeager said she could not answer those questions until William Kutash, the program administrator in charge of the Tallevast clean-up, returns to work next week from a leave of absence.

Nor could Charles Henry, Manatee County Health Department's environmental manager, confirm the pond water and irrigation wells have been tested.

Henry told Tallevast leaders Wednesday that he had no knowledge of the source of the pond water. He also said that the local health department only tests drinking water wells and the irrigation wells would most likely be tested by DEP, but he had no idea if the tests had been done.

None of this makes a lot of sense to Wanda Washington, vice president of Family Oriented Community United and Strong, an advocacy group representing Tallevast residents. Washington said FOCUS had not received any test data from either the ponds or irrigation wells.

Washington suspects something other than storm water feeds the pond, which she said remains too high to simply be a collection site for runoff.

"We really question why that pond is so high," Washington said.

That question is just one of many worrying Tallevast residents who say they are tired of all of the meetings that seem to do nothing but raise more questions.

In the past two weeks, FOCUS leaders fired off two letters to DEP, which has regulatory control over the clean-up, and the Environmental Protection Agency, demanding answers.

Why, the FOCUS leaders asked, have they had to wait more than three months for DEP's evaluation of Lockheed's last two reports on the growing size of the plume?

Patience, Washington said, is wearing thin in Tallevast.

She said DEP promised residents it would get back to them with an assessment of the Feb. 1 report.

It never came.

Nor have FOCUS leaders received DEP's analysis of the April 15 report. The report showed the plume of industrial solvents in the groundwater reached 131 acres, up from 50 acres previously reported.

In a May 16 letter to Derek Matory of EPA, Washington and Laura Ward, president of FOCUS, said DEP's lack of response is "quite disconcerting as they are the regulatory body that has been charged with the responsibility of oversight."

Washington and Ward's letter accused DEP watchdogs of falling asleep.

"Are we to continue in our vulnerable state, allowing our families to sit in harm's way while parties involved in oversight, regulation or corrective action play 'table tennis' with our lives?" the FOCUS leaders asked. "Who is in charge here? The legal consent order between the state of Florida and Lockheed Martin Corp. gives the DEP broad enforcement powers to resolve this most acute situation. Why are they responding so passively?"

Yeager, the DEP spokeswoman from the Tampa regional office, said staff is still reviewing the two Lockheed reports.

"That takes a while to put together," Yeager said. "That site has complicated geology. We are getting the site assessment report in order and we are working on our consent order with the responsible parties to address the situation and rectify it."

Yeager acknowledged DEP had received the May 12 letter FOCUS sent to Kutash, but because of his leave, the administrator had not yet read his mail.

In that letter, Washington and Ward asked DEP to require Lockheed Martin to do additional extensive soil testing throughout Tallevast.

Lockheed Martin has agreed to pay for an independent contractor of Tallevast residents' choosing to sample 20 domestic wells, 18 irrigation wells, six surface water locations, four soil samples at local day care centers and four interior wipe samples at the community center.

But the defense giant said it would not honor Tallevast residents' request to test the soil at an additional 24 locations identified by FOCUS leaders, unless DEP instructed them to do so.

Rymer said Thursday that Lockheed had already done tests on all of the soil samples DEP required. Directions for additional soil testing must come from DEP, Rymer said.

Tallevast residents say the additional soil testing is necessary because a new toxin identified in the April report appears to migrating quickly through the plume.

That toxin is 1,4 Dioxane, known to cause cancer in laboratory animals.

As 1,4 Dioxane characteristically can rise or fall with the water table and is capable of spreading in the groundwater more quickly in both breadth and depth, FOCUS leaders wrote, the community feels it is of the utmost importance that they get a handle on it as well.

"Why have you not considered this action, in light of the revelations of that last Lockheed Martin report?"

Karen Collins-Fleming, director of Manatee County Environmental Management Department, said she can empathize with Tallevast residents' frustration.

"I understand the residents' feelings," Collins-Fleming said. "They think these things are taking far too long, but this is a very complex issue."

Collins-Fleming said she has not yet completed her own review of the April 15 report, but what she analyzed so far raised no new red flags.

"We have enough red flags as it is," Collins-Fleming said. "I think DEP and Lockheed Martin are fulfilling their responsibilities."

Rymer said that despite the delay in hearing back from DEP, work continues on delineating the plume.

"We are moving ahead and to date we have found nothing major," Rymer said. "If we had, you would have heard about it."