Getting tougher on Lockheed Cleanup deadlines help, but Tallevast residents deserve more.

A tougher approach is long overdue.

This summer, DEP officials raised more than 100 questions about Lockheed's plan. A DEP administrator lamented that the information was still lacking "in light of the extensive amount of time and assessment effort afforded this site."

Lockheed's response was, not surprisingly, a request for more time. State officials recently agreed to give the corporation until September but set a series of deadlines for progress reports. If Lockheed misses deadlines, it faces fines ranging from $500 to $10,000 a day.

As neighborhood activist Wanda Washington points out, DEP had little option but to grant Lockheed officials more …