FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

ANNUAL WATER QUALITY REPORT SENT TO COUNTY UTILITIES CUSTOMERS

FORT MYERS, Fla. (June 7, 2004) - Over the next few days customers of Lee County Utilities should be receiving in the mail their 2003 Water Quality Report - an analysis of the safety of their drinking water.

The report details the results of tests on drinking water produced by the county's Water Treatment Plants and whether levels of any contaminants found, meet or exceed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards.

The Water Quality Report is required annually by the EPA under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

The county's Utilities Division serves 67,877 water and 42,975 sewer customers in portions of North, East and South Lee County. The county operates eight wastewater-treatment plants - Fort Myers Beach, Fiesta Village, Waterway Estates, Highpoint, San Carlos, Three Oaks, Gateway, 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, Bartow, Pinewoods, and Waterway Estates - with a combined 30.8-million gallons of capacity per day. The Utilities Division has an annual operating budget of about $38.6 million.