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Berry Corporation

Letter from David B. Struhs and A. Stanley Meiburg to Ernie Caldwell

Mr. Ernie Caldwell
Vice President for Environment and Governmental Affairs
Jack M. Berry, Inc.
P.O. Box 5609
Winter Haven, FL 33880

RE: Jack M. Berry, Inc. Project XL

Dear Mr. Caldwell:

We are writing as a follow-up to our letter sent to you in August 1998, concerning the Jack M. Berry XL Final Project Agreement (Agreement). While we appreciate your continued interest in Project XL, and the constructive dialogue of our meeting on August 12, 1998, since that time it appears that the Agreement as originally constructed no longer meets the needs of either Cargill or the agencies. In the three years since the agreement was signed, we have been unable to implement the agreement and establish a Comprehensive Operating Permit (COP) and further progress appears unlikely.

Even though the project has not been implemented as expected, FDEP and EPA feel that it has been a useful learning experience. The "Lessons Learned" below are items that EPA (Region 4 and Headquarters), the State, the District office, Cargill and Berry identified in a focus group discussion to evaluate the project in December 1998. These lessons were taken into account as EPA, in conjunction with interested stakeholders, conducted a "re-engineering" of the XL process.

Lessons Learned

Focus group participants cited several lessons learned in the Berry project to date that may be useful for companies involved in future XL projects. These included:

The termination provision of the Agreement (Section I F.) allows that the Agreement may be freely terminated at any time by any party. While FDEP and EPA have committed significant resources to the development of the Agreement and have continued to offer assistance in an effort to launch the COP, we no longer feel it would be useful to continue work on this project in the absence of a demonstration of further interest by Cargill. We therefore feel that the interest of all parties would be best served by terminating the agreement effective as of the date of this letter.

Thank you for your interest and participation in the XL program. I hope that we will have the opportunity to work together on other matters in the future.

Sincerely

David B. Struhs,
Secretary

A. Stanley Meiburg
Deputy Regional Administrator

Florida Department of
Environmental Protection


cc: Terri Bates, South Florida Water Management District

bcc: Jacki McGorty, FDEP
Peggie Highsmith, FDEP
Lisa Lund, OR
Chris Knopes, OR
Chad Carbone, OR
Patricia Mott, OECA
Robin Lancaster, OECA
Zylpha Pryor, R4
Michelle Glenn, R4
Anne Heard, R4


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