FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                                      

Contact:            Rick Diaz or Patty DiPiero, Lee County Utilities
                        (941) 479-8181                                               

ANNUAL WATER QUALITY REPORT SENT TO COUNTY UTILITIES CUSTOMERS

FORT MYERS, Fla. (June 26, 2002) – Over the next few days customers of Lee County Utilities should be receiving in the mail their 2001 Water Quality Report – an analysis of the safety of their drinking water. 

The report details the results of tests on drinking water produced by the county’s Water Treatment Plants and whether levels of any contaminants found meets U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards. 

The Water Quality Report is required annually by the EPA under the Safe Drinking Water Act. 

Water treated by Lee County Utilities met or exceeded all quality standards for the period covered by the report – January 1, 2001 to December 31, 2001 – except for the primary standard of sodium and the secondary standard of chloride at the Olga Water Treatment Plant.  This was due to the severe drought conditions, decreased amounts of fresh water releases from Lake Okeechobee and saltwater intrusion from the Gulf of Mexico. 

The county’s Utilities Division serves 48,500 water and 33,600 sewer customers in portions of North, East and South Lee County.  The county operates five wastewater-treatment plants – Fort Myers Beach, Fiesta Village, Waterway Estates, Highpoint and Pine Island – with a total of 10-million gallons of capacity per day, and five water-treatment plants – College Parkway, Corkscrew, Green Meadows, Olga and Waterway Estates – with a combined 26-million gallons of capacity per day.  The Utilities Division has an annual operating budget of about $27 million.