INDIANTOWN, Fla. — “It’s just blowing to the house,” said Marguerite Parent, a resident living in the retirement community Indianwood.
She’s talking about the dust. Parent and other neighbors said it's blowing onto their properties from the Terra Lago residential construction site down the road.
“It's gray,” said Parent. “It gets in your eyes. It gets on your clothes. It gets on your golf cart. It's heavy because it's really hard to wash off the driveway.”
WPTV’s Tyler Hatfield took the residents' concerns to the HOA president, Edward Steba.
Steba said the dust has been blowing for months, and the Village of Indiantown and Martin County told him they couldn’t help.
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So, Steba sent the Florida Environmental Protection Agency an email and wrote the dust is harming their health and property.
“I said, 'Please, is there some interdiction that you can do to help us?'" said Steba.
Steba said he’s still waiting for a response. In the meantime, he wants the developer — Garcia Companies — to listen to resident concerns.
“At least come over and acknowledge to us that they realize is a problem and explain their position to our people,” said Steba.
Josh Kellam, president of Garcia Companies, said they have been working on a solution.
The company is now using three water trucks to pour more than 500,000 gallons of water a day to keep the ground saturated, while also sprigging sod to grow grass more quickly, and will be planting seeds starting next week.
I asked him if he would be open to speaking to residents in person.
Kellam wrote: “We are always willing to schedule time with residences in the Village of Indiantown to help keep them informed on the progress of Terra Lago.”
