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