View of proposed Millican Dam site looking north from State Highway 244, two miles from Navasota.
Senate to hold
meeting tonight
A bill allowing two-thirds of the
Student Government Executive
Committee to conduct business
during the summer will be intro
duced tonight on emergency status
during the last Senate meeting of
the school year.
Beginning at 7:30, the meeting
will be held in Room 204 of the Har
rington Center.
Student Body President Jeff
Dunn will also nominate the Execu
tive Director, the Director of Public
Relations, and the Recording Sec
retary of Student Government, all
subject to the approval of 2-2/3 of
the Senate members.
The new members and the
chairman of the Judicial Board will
also be appointed.
One other position will be filled
when the Senate elects its speaker
for the upcoming year.
The Senate will also consider
three resolutions on emergency
status. Besides the proposal allow
ing executive action during the
summer, there will be a resolution
asking for funds to send an observer
to the National Student Association
convention scheduled for early Au
gust.
The final resolution to be consi
dered will allow a referendum in the
fall semester to place the Director of
Public Relations on the executive
committee.
All of the university committee
appointments will be presented to
the Senate, and if approved, will
then be forwarded to the administ
ration for final apprroval.
Today.
Cbe Battalion
A
Vol. 68 No. 117
College Station, Texas
Wednesday, May 7, 1975
Inside
More Millican . . .pp. 4,5
Jaworski p- 7
Okie signed ....... .p. 13
Weather
Mostly cloudy, warm and
humid. 30 per cent chance
late afternoon and evening
showers. Low tonight 72;
high Wednesday and
Thursday 86.
SG radio station
appears defunct;
manager resigns
Photo by Steve McGown
Watergate prosecutor talks
Leon Jaworski, the Houston attorney appointed special Water
gate prosecutor by Ex-President Richard Nixon, spoke before a
Rudder Center auditorium crowd last night in a Political Forum
presentation. See related story on page 7.
The proposed Student Govern
ment (SG) “open-air” radio station
appears all but dead as of Tuesday
night.
The plan, although never ap
proved by the Senate, collapsed on
Monday when Scott Sherman, SG
Radio business manager, received
word from Carol Vance, owner of
KORA-FM, that she could not ap
prove any plan for student use of the
station.
The proposal’s death was com
pounded when station manager Jim
James announced his resignation
Tuesday morning.
The “open-air” proposal called for
SG Radio to buy time from KORA-
FM and broadcast its own prog
rams. SG Radio would then sell ads
or “spots” to pay the staff and the
cost of station juse.
Bob Bell, former general man
ager of KORA-FM and KTAM, said
there hadn’t been recent negotia
tions with SG.
T feel SG was trying to settle in
ternal problems and this was a factor
in the lack of recent discussions,”
said Bell.
“I wanted the university ad
ministration to express a want for a
radio station before we completed
the deal,” said Bell, who resigned
his position on May 1. University
officials have never officially discus
sed the “open-air” proposal.
“I resigned so that they (SG)
could select a new manager before
the summer session,” said James.
Additional reasons for the resigna
tion were illness and the lack of pay.
The new manager will be selected
by the SG Radio Board. The hoard is
composed ofTroie Ann Pruitt, Mary
Ellen Martin, Bill Flores and Kyle
Klemcke.
The Senate was to discuss the
issue of funding the project tonight
at their first official meeting. Talks
with Bell had formally been con
ducted with SG executive commit
tee and SG radio.
One of the reasons for the col
lapse of the plan is the lack of
facilities at KORA-FM. The station
became automated last fall and cur
rently is without equipment for disc
jockeys.
Millican to offer
flood protection
Lignite obstacle to dam project
Coal sought in Millican before flooding begins
Flood control benefits of the
proposed Millican Dam are “wide
spread, not local in nature,” says
Gene Washburn, chief of the Army
Corps of Engineers Little Rock
District’s Report and Economics
Section.
By damming the Navasota River
12 miles above the Brazos River, the
Corps figures it can increase farm
yields in the lower Navasota as well
as the lower Brazos Valley.
The land now affected by flooding
is predominantly agricultural, says
Washburn. “The effect of the flood
control varies as you move down
stream. As you pick up more drain
age area you have less and less con
trol with what the good Lord does
with his rainfall.”
About 614,000 acres below Milli
can will get protection from the
100-year flood, says the Corps in its
justification for funding. (The
100-year flood level is an estimate
by the Corps which shows land that
has a chance of flooding once every
100 years.) Corps estimates show a
possible $74.8 million in damages
(at ’74 price levels) if a maximum
flood should occur.
The Corps also estimates annual
flood control benefits totaling $6.2
million. This is money which the
Corps figures could be made if land
is developed which now lays unused
because of flood hazard. Washburn
says the Corps surveys farmers and
county agents for this information.
James W. Yeager, Navasota city
manager, says the flood plains of the
lower Navasota are used for farm
ing, mostly corn. The big problems
with flooding lie near the coast
where Brazoria County, for exam
ple, is 40 to 60 per cent in the
100-year flood plain. A levee system
under construction near Sugar Land
will protect the coastal areas, says
the Environmental Action Council
(FAC).
The Corps is restudying Millican
Dam, and part of their study will
consider five alternatives to the dam
plans: 1) a reduced release rate
through the dam, 2) no dam at all, 3)
action by non-federal groups (In the
early ’60s, a coalition of industries
and cities contracted a Houston en
gineering firm for plans of a dam and
lake. The plans were dropped when
negotiations in Washington bogged
from local opposition), 4) a dam
without channelization below, or 5)
buying all the flood plain to protect
it from private damage.
Another proposed dam ten miles
north of Millican Reservoir, called
Navasota No. 2, will more likely
provide flood control for the
Bryan-College Station area. But
again, the Corps is still gathering
data, and information on its effect in
flood control is not yet available.
Navasota No. 2 is expected to be
built in the year 2010.
A study by the FAC says down
stream flooding could be a larger
problem after Millican is built.
Landowners below the completed
'Sginerville Dam told the FAC that
although flooding was not as drastic
after the dam was built, the water
stayed longer. It seems the dam
levels out a high flood which would
normally last a few days to a low
flood which may last several weeks.
The increased length of the flood
ing kills plant life where the short
massive flood was less destructive to
plants and trees.
The FAC also notes that the land
will permanently flood more land
than it protects and flood insurance
will protect losses in the areas now
endangered.
The biggest obstacle lying in the
path of the proposed Millican Dam
project is the deposits of lignite coal
located in the reservoir area.
About 20 percent of a 20,000-acre
lignite field would lie under water,
cutting through one of the broadest
portions of the reservoir, says Jack
Ard, Bryan Utilities Director.
The city of Bryan, in conjunction
with the Texas Municipal Power
Pool (TMPP), is obtaining options
for lignite leases in the area. If use-
Last week the U.S. Senate
and House appropriations sub
committees on public works
held hearings in Washington,
D.C. concerning this year’s
funding for the Millican Dam
project. The project is still in
the preconstruction planning
and design stage.
Millican
Dam
A series
by Jim Peters
Rod Speer
Greg Moses
J.P1KTLC 575
able deposits are found they will be
strip-mined, with the coal fueling a
proposed $300 million power plant.
Last month the Bryan City Coun
cil voted to oppose continued ap
propriations for the Millican plans,
citing the lignite field explorations.
Traditionally, both the Bryan and
the College Station City Councils
have supported the Corps of En
gineers plans for Millican. (The Col
lege Station council last month
voted to neither support nor oppose
the Corps plans.)
The discovery of lignite is nothing
new. Area residents remember coal
companies drilling core samples in
the 1920’s. One rancher recalled
that water drawn from wells first
had to be strained through flour
sacks, because of the pieces of coal
in the water.
“If you drank that water today
you’d die. But we didn’t known any
better. And nobody died,” he said.
However, it has never been
economically feasible to mine the
cheap, light-weight coal until the
recent energy crisis.
Whether the mining is now feasi
ble is the subject of a study by the
TMPP. That should be completed
within a year, said Lou Odle, Bryan
city manager.
Meanwhile, about half of the per
sons The Battalion talked with in the
lignite field area said they had
signed leases with the power
cooperative. The leases range from
a two-year exploratory to a 30-year
development lease.
Ard said that 5,000 acres have al
ready been leased, and that options
have been secured on another
4,000.
Ard estimates that strip-mining
could begin in 1981, with the coal-
fueled electric generating plant in
operation by the following year.
After the Bryan City Council
voted to oppose the Millican pro
ject, the Brazos River Authority
(BRA) submitted a supplemental
statement to the Congressional
hearings in Washington, D.C. con
cerning additional funds for the
plan.
In order to meet the country’s
pressing needs for energy and
water, it is vitally important that we
properly exploit available fuel
sources and at the same time
achieve effective development of
our available water resources,” the
statement read.
The BRA specifically suggested
that the lignite mining and the dam
construction be coordinated in such
a way “to permit recovery of mine
able lignite in the lake area before
water is impounded.
Frank Thurmond, a member of
the BRA (Board of Directors) and
chairman of the Bryan-College Sta
tion Chamber of Commerce’s Milli
can committee, spoke of a possible
solution to the problem of mining
and reservoir construction in the
river bottom.
The plan would call for construc
tion of the 4.8-mile concrete and
earth fill dam before strip-mining
begins. Then, rather than filling the
reservoir immediately, Thurmond
suggested it could remain empty
until all the strip-mining was com
pleted.
“If everything goes according to
schedule,” Thurmond said, the re
servoir could be completed “as early
as 1985 or as late as 1990.”
Water OK for drinking
Water in the proposed Millican
Lake should be good enough for
drinking, if anyone needs it.
The biggest threat to the lake’s
water quality will come from Bryan
and College Station sewage through
the Carter Creek arm. The treat
ment will have to be improved or
the plants will have to be moved if
Carter Creek is to be bearable in
color and smell.
But the Carters Creek question
seems to be moot, because the fed
eral government is requiring zero
pollutants from sewage treatment
by 1983. Millican, if everything is
on schedule, will not be completed
until 1985. The cities will have to
clean their sewage treatment
whether Millican is built or not.
With a few precautions suggested
by an A&M study, the rest of the
lake’s water supply should hold up
to drinking standards. These pre
cautions include clearing 90 per
cent of the forrested Navasota bot
tomland which will be flooded, con
trolling sewage in waterfront de
velopments and further studying
the effects of lignite operations.
Outstanding among Millican
Lake’s features is its shallowness. It
will be an average 18 feet deep and
21 percent of the area will be six feet
deep. This will increase the likeli
hood of dense plant life because the
Millican facts
Proposed Millican Dam site is 18 miles southeast of
Bryan on the Navasota River. The improvement pro
vides for a concrete and earthfill dam, 83 feet high and
25,000 feet long including a 472-foot gate-controlled con
crete spillway. The lake would cover from 42,000 acres
in surface area to 66,000 acres depending on the water
level. Total controlled storage would be 1.5 million
acre-foot for flood control, water supply and sediment
reserve. The lake would cover parts of Brazos, Grimes
and Madison Counties.
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Total estimated cost of Millican Dam project — $149 million
sun will reach much of the lake’s
depth. But the studies say good
water management will limit this
problem to the upper, more shallow
parts of the lake. One study noted
that Lake Houston, with dimen
sions smaller and shallower than
Millican, has supplied Houston
with reliable water.
But the big question remains:
Who needs surface water? Accord
ing to the Brazos Valley Develop
ment Council, which coordinates
regional planning, the Brazos
watershed has an abundance of
water. According to the Environ
mental Action Council, there is
enough ground water to supply this
area for 10,000 years.
“Even though there is an ex
tremely good source of ground
water in this area,” says Frank
Thurmond, a local member of the
Brazos River Authority, there are
many industries that want to see
their water supply.” He explained
that the surface water isn t necessar
ily cheaper, but it’s more reliable
than estimates of water you can’t