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THE BATTALION
FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 1981
Page 3
liree residence halls
cheduled for fire drills
Water supply predicted OK
whileS
By CATHIE FEIGHL
Battalion Reporter
iree residence halls on the
ixas A&M University campus
conduct fire drills some time
month.
Ron Sasse, associate director of
ident affairs, said area coordina-
sfrom the Commons, Corps and
irth area dorms will select one
in their respective areas to
itury’ss rticipate in a drill.
Dr. John J. Koldus, vice presi-
mt for student services, said the
1 froxni! bent major hotel fires in Las
igas and five fires on the Texas
ardsasu iristian University campus this
agance, ring have made the department
n’spisci )re conscious of fire damages in
npus buildings.
“It’s a concern we have always
Gross,p," Koldus said. “It’s not some-
we’ve been against; it’s just
ortunih nothing we haven’t been as pro-
» new »] iveabout as we should be,” he
With student enrollment on the
van spei irease, Sasse said, it is becoming
the ei cessary to re-evaluate the fire
D-01 ming system. He said in halls
e Schumacher, which has only
ecentralexit, evacuation during
ire could be dangerous and dis-
janized. Problems with safe eva-
ations from the dorms and effec-
ther sin ' e a ^ arm systems need to be re-
his ini J«lied, he said.
ihip
topi
“We need to find out what is
right for Texas A&M, and we
thought a good way to do that
would be to provide a test run in
each area,” Sasse said.
“By watching what happens in
these three dorms we are going to
figure out a plan for next fall for all
the dorms,” he said.
Sasse said each area’s staff will
plan and conduct its fire drill. He
said the staff’s will decide whether
the drills will be announced or un
announced, and when they will
occur.
Paul Henry, Commons area
coordinator, said the Commons
fire drill will take place in Mosher
Hall. Henry said he selected
Mosher, the largest dorm on cam
pus, because it houses 674 women
and would be the most difficult to
evacuate.
The Commons staff will coordin
ate the time and place of the drill
with the fire department Henry
said. He said he is excited about
the new fire drill program because
large housing facilities need to take
more fire safety precautions.
Monica Christen, assistant area
coordinator in the north area, said a
dorm will be selected from that
area by next week.
John White, assistant area coor-
1
Reagan economist
o keynote meeting
dinator in the Corps ara, said a
dorm had not yet been selected for
a drill in that area either, but the
dorm selected would be one of the
12 male dorms.
Sasse said a system for fire drills
has been discussed in previous
years but no one decided to ex
amine the problem until this year.
He said one of the reasons fire drills
have never been held on the cam
pus is because some staff thought
it wasn’t necessary.
“They felt things were working
fine,” Sasse said. “So why change
it?”
At the beginning of the fall
semester, every head resident and
resident adviser are given an expla
nation of the fire alarm system in
their particular dorms. Staff mem
bers view safety evacuation films
and learn how to operate fire ex
tinguishers. Extinguishers are
available in every resident advis
er’s room.
Building and evacuation proce
dures are posted in all dorm rooms
but head residents and the resident
advisers are not instructed how to
conduct an evacuation.
Minor fires in residence halls
have been attributed to residents’
carelessness as well as to pranks
ters’ mischief.
Trash chute fires have occurred
in the Commons but building eva
cuations have never been neces
sary, Henry said.
Evacuation from Dorm 4 was
necessary in August due to a fire
which damaged one room.
By TERRI ZAWACKI
Battalion Reporter
Although West Texas and the
Texas Gulf Coast are being
threatened with a water crisis, au
thorities in Bryan-College Station
don’t fear a local water shortage.
Bryan and Texas A&M Univer
sity have an plentiful water-supply
source, K. J. Koenig, assistant de
partment head of geology, said.
Both entities obtain their water
from wells within the Simsboro
Sands Formation which reach as
deep as 2,500 feet below the sur
face.
And, College Station is pre
sently in the process of developing
capabilities to also draw water
from the formation. Bennie
Luedke, water and sewer superin
tendent of College Station, said
the system should be completed
within six months.
College Station currently buys
over 85 percent of its water from
Texas A&M, said Desiree
Bohning, an employee of the Col
lege Station Water Department.
Koenig said the wells’ water
supplies shouldn’t be affected by
temporary dry spells unless this
area undergoes 10 to 12 years of
drought. Water is drawn to the
source from rain and rivers that
flow across it by a gravitational
pull.
Orville Housden, water pro
duction supervisor for Bryan, said
the 15 wells Bryan uses are able to
supply the amount of water
needed now. And additional wells
will be added as they are needed,
he said.
“I don’t expect a problem with
the water for a long time,” Hous
den said.
Gerald Scott, manager of en
gineering and energy for the Texas
A&M Physical Plant, agreed.
Although water is being pumped
from the formation at a rate faster
than it can be replenished, he said
he also doesn’t see a problem for
many years.
Scott said it was his understand
ing that what might have appeared
to have been a water shortage in
College Station last summer in
volved distribution rather than
supply.
The pipes in the water distribu
tion system are sized for a certain
quantity of water. When water is
used in excess, the pipes are un
able to handle the flow even if wa
ter is available because of a severe
drop in pressure.
However, Luedke said he
thought the situation was due to a
lack of water.
An official at the Texas A&M
Physical Plant who wished to re
main anonymous said that when a
problem occurred in the Universi
ty’s water system last summer,
Texas A&M cut back College
STATION’S SUPPLY.
Housden said that Bryan didn’t
have any difficulties with their wa
ter supply last summer.
One problem which affected
Texas A&M’s water system last
summer occurred when a train de
railment broke a water line.
A recent study on the water dis
tribution system at Texas A&M re
comends installation of larger
pipes and the addition of new
pipelines for more efficient distri
bution. Plans to change the distri
bution system have not been
made.
The only source of the world’s
water supply is rain, but only a
mall fraction of it is used as rainwa
ter. Over one-quarter of the water
used in the United States is taken
from underground reserves like
the Simsboro Sands Formation.
Interested in attending a
Jewish Service?
Please join the Jewish Community in an an
notated Service April 3 8 P.M.
Explanations of prayers and songs.
Hillel Jewish Student Center
800 Jersey Street
College Station
HI#
fflj;
fir
Dr. Arthur B. Laffer, the origi-
itor of supply-side economics
eory — the cornerstone of
eagan s economic program —
ill speak at an economics confer-
ice today at 1 p.m. in Rudder
eater.
Laffer will present the keynote
Idress at the fourth annual Con-
rence on Leadership in Free
nterprise Education sponsored
Texas A&M’s Center for Edu-
ition and Research in Free En-
irprisetobe held at the Universi-
1 today and Saturday.
The economist is director of the
University of Southern Califor
nia’s Center for the Study of Pri
vate Enterprise and a member of
the Los Angeles Times board of
economists.
During 1972-1977, he was a
consultant to the secretaries of
treasury and defense. He pre
sently serves on the policy com
mittee and the board of directors
of the American Council for Capi
tal Formation in Washington
DC.
Battalion Classified 845-2611
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UNIVERSITY
VARIETY SHOW
8:00 p.m.
Tickets: $1.50
April 4th
Rudder Auditorium
fit MSC Box Office
(university talent show)