FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

FORT MYERS, Fla. (July 12, 2001) – Starting at 6 a.m. July 13 and continuing though July 31, Lee County Utilities will be doing an annual chlorine flush of its water system, which involves converting its disinfection process from chloramines to a free residual.

This is a routine precaution that water utilities take annually to assure safe, clean drinking water.

Customers may notice a change in taste, odor and color of the water. The change is temporary and harmless. However, some customers should take special precautions. Those customers are:

• Anyone using a kidney dialysis machine at home should contact the equipment supplier so proper filtering equipment may be installed.

• Owners of tropical fish or other aquatic animals should contact a tropical fish store for ways to pre-treat water used to replenish the tanks.

Approximately 33,151 metered residences and business will be effected by this disinfection process change.

They include customers in the Corkscrew Service Area, which is north of Daniels Parkway and College Parkway; northwest of College Parkway and McGregor Boulevard; extending to Colonial Boulevard east to Six Mile Cypress/Ben C. Pratt Parkway.

Those in the Olga Service Area include north of the Caloosahatchee River from Herons Glen south to the Edison Bridge and east to State Road 31; and south of the Caloosahatchee River from Werner Drive west on Palm Beach Boulevard to New York Avenue and south to Ortiz Avenue and Fowler Street.

If customers have questions or concerns, they can call Tom Hill or Chad Denney at 694-4038.

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.