A black community in Florida is being attacked by business interests. Opinion

The effects of industrial pollution on the natural resources of Black and brown communities have been well documented by scholars and in the media, but what is happening in the unincorporated, Gulf Coast community of Tallevast is particularly notable.

The historically black community located just north of the Sarasota/Bradenton Airport is enduring a coordinated onslaught of tailwaist environmental attacks. The Manatee County government has presented the community as an inevitable sacrifice to generate commercial revenue.

The first, and most publicized, was the contamination of the community’s groundwater by Loral Corporation’s American Beryllium Company (ABC). For more than 50 years, ABC has processed toxic beryllium in a facility in the center of Tallevast.

Although monitored by local and state agencies, ABC’s production process emitted toxic dust into the air and its cleaning process leached trichlorethylene (TCE) into groundwater. While Lockheed Martin, which acquired ABC by purchasing Loral Corporation in 1997, has directed remediation efforts at Talevast for nearly a decade, residents remain distrustful of their safety, a perception that is increasingly being justified. That’s because rates of cancer and other diseases are higher than other black communities in Florida.

Had the county met the conditions of a 1980s Community Development Block Grant, Tallwaste residents would have been better protected from direct exposure to pollution. This fund, called the “TaleWast Comprehensive Improvement Grant”, was to bring all of TaleWast’s properties onto Manatee County’s water and sewer lines. The county claims funds ran out before homes could be added on the eastern side of the community.

After the contamination, Manatee County eventually brought all residents on water lines, but homes that were not connected to sewer during the 1980s renovations remain on septic tanks. Over the past few months, the County has brazenly proposed a gravity sewer project to Tallwaste residents, disregarding its obligations to its 40-year-old reclamation plan. If it moves forward, they would be required to connect to Manatee County sewer service at a cost of about $20,000 per household.

Despite Talewest’s sensitivity to the poisons released by the now-extinct industrial plant, a new wave of industries has engulfed the community and threatened its already fragile environment.

Manatee County Commissioners, in another act of dismissal, authorized the construction of a bus depot that opened in 2016. Across Talewest Road from the depot is a 55-acre Amazon distribution facility. Despite protests from Talewest residents who were concerned about environmental impacts, commissioners reallocated the land to a warehouse occupied by Amazon. Manatee County officials refused to cooperate with Talewast residents to support road infrastructure that would accommodate the increased traffic on Talewast Road, causing inconvenience to residents and reducing air quality.

This dismissal confirms that Manatee County has already designated Talewaste as an industrial site. Despite the environmental threats to residents, the community’s land holds tremendous commercial value as a gateway to air and train transportation.

As Sarasota-Bradenton Airport continues its expansion efforts, Tallwest residents will have to endure the dangers of air, noise and light pollution as well as living near a busy airport. Earlier this year, two planes almost collided in the airport area when one was allowed to take off from the runway on which the other was authorized to land.

The Seminole Gulf Railway, which is almost as old as Talewest, is also threatening the community. Last March a train derailed just steps from the Talewasta homes. The cargo on board included 30,000 gallons of liquid propane gas that was to be used by Manatee County. The expansion of the airport, the proliferation of warehouses and the still incomplete reforms constitute a coordinated environmental attack on Televast.

Yet the dismissals continue. In November, Governor Ron DeSantis opened the park less than two miles from Talewest. The park, with its lush fitness trail, pickleball courts and playground, is named after DeSantis, belying a broader, statewide movement of commercial real estate development that now surrounds Tallevast.

This movement has been strengthened by directing public education toward benign, apolitical civic knowledge. However, these initiatives serve a veil of commercial interests that dismiss the history and experiences of those whose lives are needlessly sacrificed in the name of economic progress.

In other words, the story of the Televast needs to be elevated, not only for the sake of Florida’s historical memory, but also so that when we remember it in years to come, we will realize that it told us Florida’s future. .

James Manigault-Bryant, Ph.D., is Chair and Professor of Africana Studies and Faculty Associate in Anthropology and Sociology and Religion at Williams College. Maphoudia Keita is a Mellon Mays Fellow, majoring in Environmental Studies with a concentration in Africana Studies at Williams College.

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