GlobeSt.com UPDATE: S&P Lowers Trash Plant's Bond Credit Rating to Junk Status

LEESBURG, FL-Citing a “liquidity crisis,” Standard & Poor’s Corp. has lowered bond revenue ratings for the 13-year-old, 100-acre garbage incinerator complex owned by Fairfield, NJ-based Covanta Energy Corp., formerly Ogden Corp., in Okahumpka, FL, 48 miles northwest of Downtown Orlando.

A total $1.2 billion dollars worth of revenue debt is at stake with the $60 million Lake facility and nine other comparable properties across the country. Covanta’s debt load of $149 million is due over the next 12 months.

The plant, outside of Leesburg, FL, is Lake County’s most controversial commercial venture. Elected Lake officials are suing Covanta in Lake County Circuit Court, alleging the sale of the incinerator in 1988 was illegally approved by county commissioners.