And Lockheed Martin is not done looking for cancer-causing solvents.

A new Lockheed report, sent to the state and The Herald on Friday, shows a plume that has slithered under most of the homes surrounding the old plant, reaches out into farmland to the southeast and northwest, and stretches past a nearby golf course.

The contamination also appears to have leached northwest, up 15th Street East into commercial properties, where warehouses stand and institutions including the Airport Animal Hospital and Goodwill operate.

Lockheed, responsible for the cleanup because it purchased the site in the late 1990s, submitted the bulk of its testing results Feb. 1. Officials said then they were confident the plume was 50 acres and nearly mapped. On Friday, the community was outraged to learn that the known contamination area is vastly larger - and may grow.

"These experts get up and talk about my safety and welfare and say everybody is OK," said Wanda Washington, vice president of Tallevast's community group FOCUS. "Then they draw this 50-acre plot, and now it is 131 acres? My confidence is just shrinking by the minute. Just when you think it can't get any worse, it gets worse."

Lockheed has known that the Tallevast site was contaminated since 2000, and the estimated size of the contamination has steadily grown in each new report. The biggest shock to the community so far was that some people were drinking from contaminated wells for nearly four years after Lockheed started its probe.

Residents say they have long suffered an inordinate number of illnesses, from respiratory problems to miscarriages to cancer. State health officials are still trying to assess how much contamination residents were exposed to from the American Beryllium plant, which operated from 1962 to 1996.

County officials contacted late Friday afternoon by The Herald had not seen the Lockheed report.

Charles Henry, supervisor of environmental health for Manatee County Health, declined to comment on the expansion of the plume.

"I have not seen any data so it would be unfair for me to comment," Henry said. He stressed that none of the data the health department has gathered so far indicates that any new businesses or residents are at risk. In 2004, the health department hooked residents still using drinking wells in the contamination area to county water.

The department has been testing drinking water wells within the areas Lockheed has been monitoring, Henry said. That area extends in a three-quarter-mile circle around the former plant. The high levels of contaminants are generally found near the plant and taper off to low levels near the edges.

"The Department of Health will work closely with the Department of Environmental Protection as data becomes available," Henry said. "We will analyze it and then act upon it, if necessary."

No cause for concern

Lockheed spokeswoman Meredith Rouse Davis insisted the increase in estimated plume sizes should not raise concerns, saying it appeared to be largely due to mapping technology used in the latest report. No plume map accompanied the Feb. 1 report.

"We were wrong in putting out the 50 number," Rouse Davis acknowledged.

She pointed out that several commercial properties northwest of the plant and on the fringe of the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport are still targeted for testing. Those results, as long as property access is granted, are expected in a month and should mark the end of the plume assessment phase, she said.

The No. 1 contaminant mapped in Tallevast has been a carcinogenic solvent known as trichloroethylene, or TCE. But the last one that needs to be mapped is called 1,4-dioxane, also a solvent. Dioxane, which has been linked to cancer in lab mice, can move more quickly through the groundwater and perhaps farther out. Dioxane was identified in the Feb. 1 report for the first time.

Henry said the health department did not originally test for dioxane and is retesting two wells north of the airport and west of 15th Street East. Both are drinking water wells still used by residents. Two previous tests showed the wells were not contaminated with TCE, Henry said.

Those two residential wells were tested for the third time last week for 1,4-dioxane contamination to make sure the water is safe to drink. Those two wells are within the area Lockheed has been monitoring to determine the perimeter of the plume.

Results are expected early next week, said Henry, who would not release the the two wells' addresses, citing the owners' privacy.

DEP will review

DEP spokeswoman Brenda Arnold said the agency will review Lockheed's assessment to determine whether more testing is needed or if the company should begin designing a cleanup plan. A public meeting is expected in May to discuss all new information and how Lockheed will proceed.

FOCUS' Ward says the sudden jump to 131 acres is clear proof to the community that much still needs to be examined.

"That tells you right there," Ward said. "Each and every time a report comes out, there is a difference in the size of the plume." The new report is also proof that the community was right to raise as much concern as it has, she added.

"They have been so busy keeping everyone from being alarmed. They are trying to control the people's anxiety," she said. "But we may as well be told the truth."

Manatee County Administrator Ernie Padgett also told The Herald he had not received a copy of the report.

"It doesn't surprise me that the plume is larger," Padgett said late Friday. "Every time we turn around, it is a little larger than previously stated. I don't know that it even surprises me that it is more than double the original size. The more tests they do over time, the better they can plot it."

But the county has worked hard to help the Tallevast community, addressing residents' day-to-day concerns and holding periodic meetings with his department heads and community leaders, Padgett contended.

"I feel like we have engaged the community and we are helping as much as we can and we will continue to," Padgett said. "At the same time, I fully understand the ladies saying what they are saying.

"For this plume to be more twice the size, you wonder how bad is this going to get?"

The new data should be discussed in a public meeting, he added.

"If it's now a plume that is more than twice as large as before, we need to keep everyone - the board and the public - abreast of what Lockheed is finding out," Padgett said. "This is a dynamic process. There needs to be another meeting, and the Department of Environmental Protection needs to be there as well as Lockheed."