The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, February 20, 1978, Image 1

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Battalion
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
Inside Monday:
Basketball schedule winding down, p. 10.
Divers may go deeper, p. 4.
SCONA ends conference, p. 6-7.
Williams
says
colleges
unnecessary
some
When the Texas A&M swim team had to face
Texas Tech at Downs Natatorium last weekend,
fans added some Aggie spirit to the clash between
the rival schools. Corps officers of the day raised a
saber arch for swimmers to walk through while
the theme from “Patton” blared through a sound
system. The Fish Drill Team attended, Aggie
mascot Reveille watched the match, and fans gave
yells and sang the War Hymn. It must have
helped. The women’s team won their Friday meet
and the men defeated Tech by three points Satur
day. above, Ed Kahil of A&M exhibits good form
in the butterfly stroke, and diver Ron Falken-
berry (right) executes his entry.
nergy program slowed
:aws, selling plan.
says
by apathy,
reporter
ttergy reporter Roberta Hornig said
[rday that the American people remain
|vinced that an energy crisis is upon
result, she said, is their failure to
lire Congressmen into passing an ef-
|e energy program.
rnig, energy and environmental af-
vriter for the Washington Star, gave
ssing address at the four-day Student
:e on National Affairs held at
I A&M University.
"rps of Cadets
^ an conference
Old Ags’
p Texas A&M Corps of Cadets Satur-
' Introduced plans for an “Old Army
$ itrence” for former students to be
dpn March 23-24. The purpose of this
X ference, they said, is to inform former
W*lints on the status of today’s Corps of
JT ,vts. The plan was announced at the
/-ling of the Association of Former Stu-
Jiough the course of the conference,
jates will receive vital statistics on the
including its recruiting, scholas-
fetention, and women members,
[order to receive first-hand knowl-
former students will eat, sleep and
[with the Corps throughout the con-
In response, one member re-
|ted to sleep in his old dormitory-
1.
he girls would love to have you. I’ve
they like older men," said Buck
pus, executive director of the associa-
^ .inference activities include an “Old
0 rBeer Bust. Breakfast will be served
juncan Dining Hall from 7 to 8:30 a.m.
those suffering from the previous
|s activities, coffee and donuts will be
ft ed later in the morning.
U* ther activities include the comman-
t’s address, a briefing on the organiza-
of the Corps, a meeting on details of
iific areas in the Corps, and a luncheon
he Memorial Student Center Ball-
l$(
response, Weirus said, “If he expects
|o come over there and sleep with the
ps, I demand a board to put over the
. Everytime I’ve ever slept over there
been drowned out.”
mother thing, if that beer bust is near
terhole. I’m not going to that either,
hey re still a bunch of ‘water queers’
they call it quadding now, Weirus
She told the conference delegates why
she thought President Carter’s energy
legislation hasn’t succeeded in Congress.
But she said she expects a compromise to
be reached within the next two weeks. The
legislation is now in a House-Senate con
ference committee.
The legislation was written in “white
heat,” she said, and was sent to Congress
containing some serious technical flaws.
“The whole program was held together
by numbers — how much energy a particu
lar proposal would save, how much it would
cost — and often the numbers simply didn’t
jibe,” she said. “There were repeated dis
crepancies as the weeks went on.”
But members of Congress have criticized
the press, particularly those who cover the
White House, of failing to see those dis
crepancies when the legislation was first
introduced.
Hornig said that four Congressional re
search groups — the Congressional Budget
Office, the General Accounting Office, the
Library of Congress and the Office of
Technology Assessment — concluded last
summer that the Carter energy program
would never meet its goals.
“None of this contributed to a spirit of
confidence that would make Congressmen
go and rush to support the bill,” she said.
She criticized the White House in its
selling of the problem, and said less than
two dozen officials were involved in the
planning stages. The Whte House also
failed to consult Treasury Department
lawyers when compiling figures in tax pro
posals. Nor did they consult members of
Congress, who Hornig said felt “left out”
and later gave little support to the program.
After the legislation was drawn up, she
said, it “literally sailed through the
House.” Hornig credited the speed of pas
sage to the “political wizardry” of House
Speaker Tip O’Neill and the fear of many
Congressmen who didn’t want to be pin
pointed as saboteurs of a great national
need.
Things changed, however, when the bill
reached the Senate last September. Hornig
said parts of the original legislation that did
pass were “watered down, substantially
changed, mangled or butchered.”
The trouble the legislation ran into in the
Senate was also a result of political inex
perience on the part of the president and
his advisers, Hornig said.
“They decided it had gone so well in the
House that they could just sit back and let
the same thing happen in the Senate. They
did not understand that the Senate works
very differently, that you have, and I say
this affectionately, 100 prima donnas who
want to sit and study a particular piece of
legislation. No experienced Washington
politician would have made that mistake.”
Of the major pieces of the legislation, the
one still not acted on by the Senate is the
crude oil price equalization tax. Hornig
says that piece of legislation is dead.
“I think it died the day Congress passed
the Social Security Act,” she said. “Con
gress, particularly in an election year, is
going to be very leery of passing any more
bills that are going to cost consumers
money.”
Hornig expects the legislation’s com
promise to have provisions for gradual de
regulation of natural gas over a period of
five to seven years, with safeguards that
will allow the government to re-impose
controls if prices go too high.
Hornig said she favors passage of the
program, even though she doesn’t expect it
to solve all of America’s energy problems.
She expects more legislation will be neces
sary, including some that will encourage
more production.
“That is now getting a voice iti Washing
ton,” she said.
She also stressed that the program would
be evidence of a national will. OPEC and
other foreign nations, she said, “are not
going to take us seriously until they under
stand that we understand we are using up a
little too much energy.”
Hornig concluded her speech on an op
timistic note, saying, “I think somehow
we re going to muddle through no matter
what Washington does.”
By PAIGE BEASLEY
Battalion Staff
Texas A&M University System Chancel
lor Jack Williams said Saturday that the
state of Texas has overbuilt colleges and
universities during the last ten years.
Williams addressed a campus meeting
of the Association of Former Students and
spoke from a paper he prepared for the
Association of Texas Colleges and Univer
sities. He said he was asked by the associa
tion to prepare the year’s position paper
on higher education in Texas.
In the past ten years, Texas has added
14 new colleges, he said, which were built
by the state and not by the universities
themselves.
“I think in this category we have over
built, because about six of them are un
necessary.”
He also warned of the threat of control
of the educational process on the part of
state or federal patrons. “The federal
people are working to take control of
higher education in two ways, Williams
said. First is blackmail, the threat of cut
ting off federal funds. The other is the
propaganda battle, “the argument that
everything done by the federal people is
done in good names of equality with
brotherhood and unisex, he said.
“I say that, in an effort to combat the
arguments of legislators who would like to
make education all the same, all colleges
financed the same, all look alike, all work
alike, all do the same things’ he said.
Williams added that the collegiate sys
tem of education should offer our state the
broadest range of educational choice with
quality as the keystone. Yet he said the
educational establishment should operate
with goals of sensible economy.
Williams then said there were several
issues that people of the state must face as
they talk to their legislators and friends.
"First is the support for the state’s inde
pendent college complex, he said. “These
institutions must be supported apparently
by some state taxpayers assistance if they
are to continue in existence at all.
Secondly, Williams said, there should
be a fullfunding of formula amounts de
rived by the coordinating board for higher
education.
Full-formula funding is based on credit
hours produced, he said. A formula figure
is given to the legislature, and the legisla
ture then prodceeds to cut this formula
figure down to whatever it wishes.
For institutions not undergoing growth,
there are no great problems, Williams
said. “It means for us at A&M that we will
suffer great damage. Our permanent Uni
versity fund money, which is normally
dedicated to buildings, will have to be
dedicated to the ongoing operations of the
school. ,
“If they reduce it as they have, it will
mean the reduction of faculty salaries of
library holdings and laboratory equipment
of departmental operations. ”
In this state, there is a popidar attack on
faculty research, Williams said. “That
doesn’t hurt very many institutions, but it
certainly does damage to ours. Because
we, with the University of Texas, are the
two greatest research institutions in the
Southwest.”
“Indeed Texas A&M, which leads the
state and the Southwest, is the sixteenth
heaviest-funded research institution in of
higher learning in America.
During the meeting, members ap
proved a $2,100,375 budget to be used for
1978 academic projects.
Contributions were allotted for unre
stricted and restricted use. Unrestricted
funds are used for academic support of
Texas A&M and services for former stu
dents. Restricted funds are used for club
and individual scholarships, student pro
grams, colleges and departments, and gifts
made direct to the University.
Unrestricted funds were designated for
two new areas, graduate college merit fel
lowships and a departmental enrichment
fund.
The graduate college will receive
$30,000 for graduate college fellowships.
This will include five $6,000 fellowships.
The departmental enrichment fund of
$33,5000 is to assist department heads
with expenses not covered by the budget.
This is an unrestricted fund to be used as
individual department heads see fit.
The highest record of support by the as
sociation was made through the 1977 an
nual fund. More than 27,000 gifts totalling
$2,248,823 was given to Texas A&M.
Bryan lake did get contaminated water
Arsenic sediments removed
Baseball team sweeps
three games from LS U
The Aggie baseball team started the new season off on a winning note by
sweeping three games from LS U in a rain-shortened series this past weekend
in Baton Rouge.
Junior pitcher Jack Pockrus won the first two games in relief appearances
as the Aggies took the first game 4-3. Rain caused the cancellation of the
E second game in the second inning. The bad weather hampered play Satur-
I day as the games were called due to wet and cold grounds.
The two teams managed to get two games in yesterday as Pockrus the won
I the first relief 5-4. In the nightcap, the Aggies made it three in a row with a
I 6-2 win over LSU. David Pieczynski started and got the win for A&M.
The Aggies return to action today when they face McNeese St. in a
doubleheader at Travis Park in Bryan. Game time is 1:30.
By FLAVIA KRONE
Arsenic contaminated sediments are
being removed from Bryan Municipal
Lake, located at the corner of College Av
enue and Villa Maria.
Arsenic contaminated water has been
seeping into Municipal Lake and Fin-
feather Lake from Pennwalt Co. wastewa
ter retention ponds for more than 35
years.
The Pennwalt Co. plant, located on
Dodge in Bryan, manufactures arsenic de
siccants that are used to strip leaves from
cotton.
Until recently, wastewater from the
plant was stored on the Pennwalt Co.
premises in ponds adjacent to Finfeather
Lake. Pennwalt Co. project manager,
Edwin L. Tryson, said that storm water
run-off and seepage carried arsenic-
contaminated wastewater into Finfeather
Lake. Some of the arsenic washed down
Burton Creek and into Municipal Lake.
From Municipal Lake, arsenic-
contaminated water could flow out to Car
ter’s Creek and into the Navasota River.
In 1974, the Texas Water Quality Board
ruled that Pennwalt Co. was in violation of
the Texas Water Code section prohibiting
unauthorized seepage of arsenic-
contaminated wastewater. The board re
quired Pennwalt Co. to remove and dis
pose of arsenic-contaminated sediments
which had accumulated in Finfeather and
Municipal lakes.
The Aug. 31, 1976 court injunction in
the case of the State of Texas vs. Pennwalt
Corporation stated that Pennwalt Co.
must:
• eliminate and close existing
wastewater retention ponds;
recycle all contaminated waste-
water generated at the plant site;
• stop seepage of arsenic-
contaminated wastewater from the prem
ises;
• build a disposal pit for arsenic
contaminated sediments;
• remove and dispose of all
arsenic-contaminated sediments from Fin
feather and Municipal lakes.
Tryson said the retention ponds have
been closed and a total containment recy
cling system is now in operation. A clay-
lined pit for the disposal of contaminated
sediments is near completion.
The dredging and draining of Finfeather
Lake is also complete. However, the
Municipal Lake project will not be
finished until the middle of next year, Try
son said.
Pennwalt Co. is paying for all im
provements ordered by the court. The
court injunction estimated the cost of the
clean-up and improvements at about
$500,000. However, Tryson said the com
pany will spend over $1 million to com
plete the project.
After each lake is drained, core samples
of bottom sediment are analyzed for arse
nic content by Agricultural Analytic Serv
ices at Texas A&M University. Dr. W.L.
Hoover, state chemist for the service, said
the Environmental Protection Agency
maximum allowable concentration of arse
nic in soil is ten parts per three million. If
the samples indicate a greater arsenic con
centration than this, the lake is dredged
more deeply. By repeated sample analysis
and dredging, a level is eventually reached
where the arsenic content in the sediment
is safe. Two to four feet of sediment was
removed from Finfeather Lake and the
same is anticipated for Municipal Lake.
Arsenic precipitates out of water as an
insoluable sediment, says Dr. Ralph A.
Zingaro, professor of chemistry at Texas
A&M. This means most of the arsenic
which entered Finfeather and Municipal
lakes settled on the lake bottoms and can
be removed by dredging.
Zingaro also said that arsenic is not as
deadly as is popularly believed.
“Arsenic is present everywhere in small
amounts," he said. “The danger depends
on the chemical form and amount.” In the
1930s, arsenieals were used in large
amounts to treat venereal disease with no
apparent ill-effects, Zingaro noted. He
said, however, that “there is no excuse for
industrial sloppiness in the manufacture
of chemicals.
After Municipal Lake is drained and
dredged the Bryan Parks and Recreation
Department plans to give a facelift to the
lake, adjacent golf course and surrounding
area.
The department plans to reshape the
lake shore, rebuild the third green and
construct a practice range for golfers, said
Parks and Recreation Director Dr. Jay S.
Williams. In addition, a covered picnic-
area, gazebo and a parking lot are planned
for the area adjacent to Roundtree and
College Avenue. The project will cost
about $30,000, Williams said.
A large white drain pipe runs under College Av
enue and empties into Rryan Municipal Lake.
Arsenic-contaminated sediments are currently
battalion photo by Penny Sue- Mcm-fec
being removed from the lake, as a result of Texas
Water Quality Board rulings on seepage from
Pennwalt Co. of Bryan.