Landscapers planting shrubs at the neighborhood’s entrance wore no protective gear and said they knew nothing about the contamination. Their employer, Dixie Landscape, could not be reached for comment by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

”(Management) didn’t say anything to us,” said Nelson Ruiz, a landscaping crew chief for the company. “I heard there were problems going on with the job site. But nothing like that.”

The U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration, which handles worker safety in Florida, requires employers to tell workers about chemical hazards at a job site and how much of the toxins are on a site, said Bill Fulcher, a team leader in enforcement for OSHA in Atlanta.

Ruiz, the crew manager for Dixie Landscape, whose workers were digging at Oakmont, said about 15 landscapers have worked at the site for eight months, laying irrigation pipes. He said he’d noticed work at the site had dropped off recently.