FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Lindsey Sampson, Lee County Solid Waste Division
              (239) 338-3302

INCINERATOR EXPANSION RECEIVES FAVORABLE RECOMMENDATION

FORT MYERS, Fla. (September 22, 2003) - A Florida Administrative Law Judge has recently issued an order recommending the approval of Lee County's application to expand its Waste-to-Energy Facility - paving the way for hearings in the next week before Florida's Governor and Cabinet.

Lee County currently is in the permitting process of expanding its Waste-to-Energy Facility from a capacity of 1,200 tons per day to 1,800 tons per day by adding a third, 600-ton burner. The facility was completed in August 1994 and disposes of the county's garbage by burning it and generating electricity from a steam driven turbine. The facility burns 395,000 tons of garbage a year and generates up to 34 megawatts of electricity - or enough to power about 30,000 homes.

County representatives will appear before the Cabinet Aides Wednesday (Sep. 24) and before the Governor and Cabinet, acting as the "Power Plant Siting Board," Sep. 30. The Governor and Cabinet will decide whether it will adopt the judge's Recommended Order and approve the expansion.

The judge's recommendation is good news for the county because the Waste-to-Energy Facility is operating at full capacity. In fact, the county has had to landfill ever-increasing amounts of solid waste for the past several years rather than converting all of our waste into electricity.

The recommendation comes after almost two years of application and information submittals that the county made to 10 local, state, and federal regulatory agencies. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection and all of the other agencies involved in the review process have recommended approval of Combustion Unit 3, or expressed no opposition, provided that Lee County complies with certain "Conditions of Certification." The county has accepted the Conditions of Certification. No person or agency spoke in opposition to the project at the certification hearing in Fort Myers.

The Judge made the following "Findings of Fact" in his Recommended Order:

(a) The "Project will comply with all of the nonprocedural land use and environmental statutes, rules, policies, and requirements that apply to the Project", including the regulations dealing with air quality, water consumption, and wetlands.

(b) The "Facility should not have any measurable effect on human health or the environment, even when all three MWC units are operational."

(c) "Construction of Unit No. 3 will occur in previously disturbed upland areas on the Site", adjacent to the existing Facility. "Construction of Unit No. 3 will not impact any wetlands or environmentally sensitive areas."

(d) "Unit No. 3 will not discharge any industrial or domestic wastewater to any surface water or ground water."

(e) "The County's water supply plan maximizes the use of reclaimed water. . . . The Facility also recycles and reuses water to the greatest extent practicable."

(f) The Facility has "an excellent record for compliance with all applicable regulations."

(g) "Units No. 1 and No. 2 are among the best operated and controlled MWC units currently operating in the United States. Unit 3 will have better, more modern, and more sophisticated air pollution control systems."

(h) "In 1991, the Siting Board determined that the Site and Facility are consistent and in compliance with the applicable land use plans and zoning ordinances, based on the construction and operation of three MWC units at the Facility."

(i) By using solid waste as fuel, "Unit No. 3 will eliminate the need to use approximately 5.54 million barrels of oil, and thus will save approximately $150 million in oil purchases over the next 20 years."

(j) "Lee County has a comprehensive recycling program," which has been very successful.

(k) The County needs to expand its Facility because the amount of solid waste generated in the County exceeds the amount that can be handled by the two existing MWC units.

The plant exceeds strict environmental and emissions standards and has been the recipient of many awards since opening, including the Power Engineering and Power Engineering International magazines' 1995 Project of the Year Award, the 1996 Environmental Citizen of the Year Award from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the 1999 Waste-to-Energy Excellence Gold Award from The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA), and the 2001 Facility Recognition Award from The Solid Waste Processing Division of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).