Oct 4, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Patty DiPiero, Lee County Utilities, (239) 479-8534
LEE COUNTY UTILITIES COMPLETES 5-MILLION GALLON PER DAY CAPACITY REVERSE OSMOSIS WATER TREATMENT PLANT
FORT MYERS, Fla. (October 4, 2006) - Lee County Utilities (LCU) will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony Monday for the new North Lee County Reverse Osmosis Water Treatment Plant – the first RO plant in the county utilities system.
The ceremony for the new plant will be at 11 a.m. Monday, October 9th at 18250 Durrance Road, which is located off of Bayshore Road, east of I-75.
Commissioner Tammy Hall will serve as master of ceremonies and will be joined by other county representatives and the design engineers, MWH, and construction and risk manager, KBR.
The $32 million project is just another indicator of the county's tremendous growth and the infrastructure needed to keep up with that growth.
This facility uses reverse osmosis (RO) to treat brackish water from eight production wells from the Lower Hawthorne aquifer and produces 5 million gallons per day (mgd). The use of RO as a treatment process is the first of its kind for LCU's infrastructure. LCU decided to build this plant using the best available and affordable technologies along with a sustainable alternative water supply.
The plant also consists of two RO treatment units, two 2.5 million gallon capacity storage tanks, a deep injection well for brine disposal, and a six million gallon brine pond. This plant will serve customers in the North Ft. Myers area and portions of South Ft. Myers.
Lee County Utilities currently has more than 75,500 water accounts. The county operates seven potable water treatment facilities with a capacity of 38-million gallons per day.