INDIANTOWN, Fla. — We're working to get answers for residents in Indiantown who reached out to WPTV about excessive dust coming from a residential construction site.
The dust is creating a mess and some claim it's a health hazard.
Betty Tirillo, who lives in the Indianwood retirement community, showed WPTV the mess that the problem is creating inside her home.
"It leaves a black soot on everything," Tirillo said. "It's sand and dirt that you either have to power brush off or sweep it off or whatever to get rid of it."
She and her neighbors said the dust is blowing onto their properties from the nearby 800-acre Terra Lago construction site, which will house more than 2,500 people.
"It's like the fog, but it's not fog. It's sand and dirt," Tirillo said.
She said it's damaging her HVAC unit and leaving a mess on porches and cars.
Tirillo said many neighbors are worried about their health.
"I get a sore throat. I'm choking and coughing all the time," Tirillo said. "My neighbor across the street, he's having the same problem, and I can imagine what these people who have breathing problems in here are going through. They can't even leave their houses."
WPTV took their concerns to Taryn Kryzda, the village manager of Indiantown, who told WPTV reporter Tyler Hatfield that the soil's poor water retention and high winds make the issue worse.
But Kryzda said hopefully this won't be a problem much longer.
"They're moving as quickly as they possibly can," Kryzda said.
WPTV went looking for answers. We spoke to Joshua Kellam, president of Garcia Companies, who's in charge of the residential construction project.
He said he's well aware of residents’ concerns and they're now using three water trucks instead of the usual two to pour more than 40,000 gallons of water a day to keep the ground saturated.
"We are going to just continue to make the situation better, and we're going to move as fast as we can so that we can have beautiful green grass growing out there as soon as possible," Kellam said.
He said the grass is already starting to grow, which should settle the dust.
Kellam expects the new neighborhood to be fully built by June.
