TNRCC Approves El Centro Municipal Solid WasteLandfill Permit.

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 16, 1999--

The Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, ("TNRCC"), the state's leading environmental agency, Wednesday granted a permit to Texas Ecologists, Inc. for a new municipal solid waste landfill.

Texas Ecologists, Inc. a subsidiary

The "greenfield" site is located 10 miles west of Corpus Christi and is at the center of an eight-county market area with a population of approximately 500,000. The operation is being called El Centro Landfill, reflecting this central location in the region, and having excellent highway access to the site.

The permit authorizes construction and operation of the facility on a 160-acre tract owned by Texas Ecologists' and adjacent to its existing 280-acre hazardous waste disposal landfill, which has been in operation since 1973. That facility primarily serves the refining and chemical industries of the Gulf Coast states. The new El Centro is expected to begin accepting waste during the second quarter of 2000.

Jack Lemley, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer was pleased that the TNRCC had granted the Company the permit to operate the new municipal solid waste facility. Lemley said, "This addition to our south Texas operations is a significant element for growth, both for us and the community we serve."

Joe Kramer, Texas Ecologists vice president and facility manager, noted that many smaller municipal landfills in the region have been forced to close in recent years because of increasingly stringent state and federal regulations, creating a need for a new centrally located facility that can meet those standards.

Kramer said the facility will incorporate state of the art design features and operational controls set out in TNRCC rules intended to assure proper environmental safeguards. These include composite liner systems, leachate collection systems, storm water controls and methane gas control systems.

American Ecology provides processing, packaging, transportation, remediation and disposal services for generators of hazardous, non-hazardous, municipal solid, and low-level radioactive waste at licensed facilities throughout the United States. American Ecology is traded on the NASDAQ with the symbol ECOL.