By Dan DeWitt
Times Staff Writer

     BROOKSVILLE - Four years after suffering severe burns at Florida Crushed Stone Co.'s lime and power plant north of Brooksville, former employee James McDow has received a $1.5-million settlement.
     A co-worker, Ed Boston, who also filed suit against the company and four others involved in the design, building and operation of the plant, has reached a similar agreement. His attorney, Bill Wagner of Tampa, said Boston asked him to withhold the exact amount he received.
     McDow's settlement, which stemmed from a 1991 lawsuit filed in Hillsborough County, was finalized Tuesday.
     Wil Florin, James McDow's lawyer, said Florida Crushed Stone will pay the bulk of an immediate $540,000 payment. The designer of the unique plant that makes lime and generates power, Babcock & Wilcox Inc. of Ohio will pay McDow most of the agreed-upon $720,000 over the next several years.
     Several companies including Florida Crushed Stone and the contractor that built the plant, will reimburse, the state for $240,000 in workers' compensation payments to McDow.
     Florin said that the plant, operated by Central Power and Lime Inc., a subsidiary of Florida Crushed Stone was dangerous partly because it is the only one in the world. Its large boiler generates intense heat used both to purify lime and to turn turbines that produce electricity.
     "It's called a co-generation facility. It's the only one in the world. Because of that, it was sort of fraught with problems from the beginning. They didn't have another model they could look to," Florin said.
     Doug McDow, James McDow's younger brother, suffered serious burns nine months before his brother, doing virtually the same job.
     Company officials did not return telephone calls Monday and Tuesday, but their lawyer, David Kadyk, said: "Basically, the whole design of the conveyor has been changed."
     Kadyk said the conveyor area, where James McDow and Boston were injured, is now cleared by power washers; a television camera has been installed to detect clogs.
     "Our contention was that they should have done this in the first place," Florin said.
     On June 26, 1990, the workers' supervisor sent the two men to the base of the boiler, where the fly ash - used in the making of cement - flows down a flue into a cooling tank and is carried away on a conveyor.
     Boston and McDow tried to clear the flue by banging on the outside of it with sledgehammers. A chunk of fly ash broke loose, fell into the vat and the two men were doused with scalding water, steam and burning fly ash.
     McDow was burned over 30 percent of his body, mostly on his arms and legs, and endured years of skin grafting from the healthy skin on his back. Boston's injuries were even more severe, according to his lawyer, Wagner.
     His medical treatment has cost about $350,000, Wagner said. His sight remains impaired in one eye, he is permanently scarred, and he has been unable to work since the accident
     The Florida Crushed Stone Co. plant just north of Brooksville generates electricity and produces lime and cement. At last inspection, it employed 211 workers.