For Immediate Release
September 21, 2000

Broomes Island, Md. - Pepco, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Maryland Department of Natural Resources and Calvert County Watermen's Association today seeded about one million oysters on Broomes Island bar in the Patuxent River to help replenish local oyster populations.

In July, the governors of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the mayor of Washington, D.C. signed the Chesapeake Bay Agreement that calls for increasing the bay's oyster population tenfold by 2010. Since 1998, Pepco has worked cooperatively with the DNR and the foundation to seed more than 200,000 oysters in the Patuxent River and since 1996 has worked with the DNR to seed more than four million oysters in the Potomac River. The company has also assisted the DNR by transporting more than 85 million oyster seeds to growing areas around the state and by donating more than 1000 man-hours in an oyster study of the Patuxent River.

"On the Patuxent, oysters were once referred to as Chesapeake Gold," said Jim Potts, Pepco Vice President Environment. "By seeding oysters, Pepco not only helps the oyster regain its golden status, we also reintroduce a powerful environmental ally that helps clean the river."

The oysters seeded today were transported by Pepco from the DNR's oyster hatchery at Piney Point and seeded by local watermen, foundation volunteers and Pepco employees.

Pepco's participation in oyster seeding projects is part of the company's environmental stewardship program. In the early 1980s, Pepco made a commitment to go beyond mere compliance with environmental laws to embracing environmental excellence. In addition to oyster seeding, Pepco has made significant contributions toward building and enhancing wetlands; raising and releasing into the Patuxent River more than four million rockfish and shad, as well as other fish species; and creating hundreds of acres of wildlife habitats.

Pepco (NYSE:POM) is an investor-owned utility that provides electricity in Washington, D.C. and the Maryland suburbs, serving more than 700,000 customers. Pepco, through its family of unregulated subsidiaries, also offers electric energy, natural gas, high-speed Internet access, local and long-distance telephone, cable television and energy management services in the Mid-Atlantic region.