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County's Fiesta Village Wastewater Treatment Plant Wins State Award
May 12, 2006 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Patty DiPiero, Lee County Utilities, 479-8534 COUNTY'S FIESTA VILLAGE WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT WINS TOP STATE AWARD FORT MYERS, Fla. (May 12, 2006) - Fiesta Village Wastewater Treatment Plant has won the statewide 2006 Earle B. Phelps Award in the category of Best Advanced Treatment. This award is given annually by the Florida Water Environment Association (FWEA) to recognize the advanced wastewater treatment facility that has maintained the highest removal of major pollution-causing constituents prior to discharging the treated effluent to receiving waters. Fiesta Village has also won for the same category in 2004 and was named runner-up in 2005. The award was based on such criteria as the previous 12 months of the facility's monthly reports, the flow-weighted monthly and annual average effluent and effluent concentrations with the associated percent removal of each parameter identified in the award criteria, and a schematic diagram of the treatment facility's operation or process. Jon Meyer, Wastewater Manager, and Dennis Lang, Lead Operator of Fiesta Village, accepted the award in Orlando at the Florida Water Resource Conference. FWEA is the Florida Member Association of the Water Environment Federation (WEF) that provides educational and technical enhancements for water quality around the world. The FWEA is an organization of water quality professionals responsible for protecting Florida's clean water environment. They provide educational opportunities to increase awareness and understanding of water quality issues. The county's Utilities Division currently has more than 75,500 water and 54,500 sewer accounts throughout Lee County. The county operates eight wastewater-treatment plants - Fort Myers Beach, Fiesta Village, Waterway Estates, Three Oaks, San Carlos, Gateway, Highpoint, and Pine Island - with a total of 16.5-million gallons of capacity per day, and seven drinking water-treatment plants - College Parkway, Corkscrew, Green Meadows, Olga, Pinewoods, Bartow, and Waterway Estates - with a combined 35-million gallons of capacity per day. The Utilities Division has an annual operating budget of about $54.4 million.
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