Contact: Patty DiPiero, Lee County Administration, (239) 479-8534

COUNTY COMPLETES 10-MILLION GALLON WATER RESERVOIR FOR UTILITY NEEDS

FORT MYERS, Fla. (September 23, 2005) - Lee County will hold a ribbon cutting Monday for its latest Utilities expansion - 10 million gallons of water storage in south Lee County.

The ceremony for the new "Airport Haul Reservoir" will be at 11 a.m. Monday, 16000 Airport Haul Road, which is two-and-a-half miles east of I-75 on Alico Road (at intersection of Airport Haul Road turn north; the road is unmarked but is past the APAC plant and overhead power lines, and a small green sign says "Green Meadows Water Treatment Plant").

Commissioner John Albion will serve as master of ceremonies and will be joined by other county representatives and the design engineers, TKW Consulting Engineers, and construction manager, Earth Tech.

The $9.5 million project is just another indicator of the county's tremendous growth and the infrastructure needed to keep up with that growth.

The reservoir consists of two, five-million-gallon concrete storage tanks that are interconnected to the Green Meadows and Corkscrew water treatment plants. It is fully automated and can be remotely operated from the Green Meadows Water Treatment Plant.

By interconnecting Green Meadows and Corkscrew, the two systems will assist one another in evenly distributing water to meet demands. The large diameter interconnection provides a greater level of system reliability and versatility, so that in the event that one plant is out of service, due to an emergency or maintenance, the other plant can continue to provide water for both systems.

The reservoir has 10 million gallons of storage capacity and eight, high-service pumps, that will allow both systems to better meet periods of peak demand. This also allows the facility to act as a central water distribution center. This eliminates the duplication of improvements for a water storage tank and high service pumping stations at both plants, resulting in significant cost savings.

This project was completed using funds from the Lee County Utilities Capital Improvement Program, which is funded through user fees. Also, during this project, the county saved more than $130,000 by directly purchasing major equipment and materials.