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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 28, 1983)
npi ■ Texas A&.M The lion Serving the University community ,76 No, 166 USPS 045360 8 Pages College Station, Texas Tuesday, June 28, 1983 niversity official says violation f EPA rules a misunderstanding by Scott Griffin Battalion Staff The Environmental Protection Key’s proposed $26,500 in civil naldes against Texas A&.-M for tox- substance violations is a harsh re- ie to a minor misunderstanding, a University spokesman. Jeffrey Alford, associate director p U bii c information, said the com- *™int by the EPA came about for ee reasons. "First of all, we don’t understand actly what the EPA expects of us,” ford said, “and I don’t think the 'Aunderstands what we’ve done. “This is an awfully large fine for the kinds of problems they’ve cited us for,” he said. Alford said one of the main factors of the complaint was that some trans formers and capacitors on campus which contain the suspected carci nogen polychlorinated biphenyl, or PCB, were not properly labeled. But he added, “There is no danger of exposure and nobody has sug- xpe id gested that there was any health hazard.” Alford said the University has some of the units on utility poles around campus, and EPA regulations state that labels can be placed on the units themselves or on the poles. He said the University chose to label the poles, and when the units were removed, they were left un marked. The University was then cited. “I guess nobody was aware that they (the tranformers) needed to be re-labed,” Alford said. He added that University officials were unaware they were violating an EPA regulation. Another part of the complaint, Alford said, stems from the failure of the University to submit quarterly re ports to the agency. The reports be came mandatory about mid-1982. Alford said that before last year, the EPA required only annual reports and the University was unaware of the change. A third complaint, Alford said, was an unlabeled transformer which was moved from the Fireman’s Training School in 1979 and is now stored in the Utilities Building. “We’re saying that the regulations aren’t fair,” Alford added. “We did what we were told to do.” Itilities discussed during seminar t Evan L« Brown bag sessions inform citizens Power shortage creates alarm by Scott Griffin Battalion Staff College Station Fire Chief Doug Landua says this weekend’s campus power shortage created a false alarm at Sterling C. Evans Library. Firemen responded to a call at about 4 p.m. Saturday after smoke was spotted coming from the base ment area on the south side of the library. Landua said firemen encoun tered a problem when University police officers were unable to find the keys to the basement door. “You could say we were delayed in excess of 20 minutes,” Landua said. “The University security peo ple were having some trouble locat ing the keys to the door, so we had to find a different access to the base ment.” Landua added that the Physical Plant workers were probably the only other people with a key, and he said even more time would have elapsed if they had been called in. “It was a weekend,” Landua said, “and because of that, it would have taken quite a while to call in some body from off campus to unlock the door.” However, Landua said the smoke was found to be exhaust from auxili ary generators which were activated shortly after the power loss. The power shortage resulted around 3:30 p.m. when lightning struck generating equipment on campus. A University Police spokesman said most of the power was restored by late afternoon. He added, howev er, that residents in the married stu dent housing area were without power until 9 p.m. Lightning also caused a power shortage that affected about half of Bryan, said City Utilities Director Gailord White. )•••««< by Robert McGlohon Battalion Staff A tremendous amount of book- is the primary reason be- the $40 charge College Station sidents pay to transfer deposits one electrical account to other, says Linda Piwonka, office mager of the College Station utili- department. That charge can be avoided, tever. If a customer opens a new account dcloses the old one, no transfer irge is incurred, Piwonka said. But ider that system, it is necessary to make a new $105 security deposit, and wait for the old deposit to be re turned, she said. Piwonka answered questions about transfer charges, meter reading and more Friday at noon in the first of a series of monthly Brown Bag semi nars offered by the College Station Community Center. Reba Ragsdale, a College Station resident, was one of about 20 people to attend the meeting. Ragsdale was curious about the recent rate increase for commercial users of electricity. “She (Piwonka) explained it suffient- ly, I think,” Ragsdale said. She said she found the seminar in formative. “I was pleased to have an opportunity to ask my question,” she said. Piwonka spent much of the semi nar explaining, item by item, the Col lege Station utility bills. More can be seen in the bill than just what is owed, Piwonka said. “Our utility bills in clude a ton of information on them,” she said. Included among the information on the bill are: the account number, a code showing the rate applied to the bill, the date of the meter readings and an itemized list of charges. Piwonka warned that the bills are not always accurate: a meter could be read incorrectly or something could go wrong in the billing department. All it takes is “one slip of the finger,” she said, for a mistake to happen. Because of that, she encouraged residents to check their monthly bills. The simplest item to check is the code for the rate schedule, she said. If the wrong rate as been applied to a cus tomer’s bill, she said, a call to the util ity department will get it corrected. See COMMUNITY, page 8 Brucellosis bill signed by White !ridge collapses in Connecticut /usic Dmpli- .ge. United Press International GREENWICH, Conn. — Three Btbound lanes of the Mianus Bridge Miecting New York and Connecti- tcollapsed early today, plunging at istfour vehicles 70 feet into the wa- below and killing a Louisiana :k driver and two other people, ice said. Three other people were injured ically when the vehicles, including tractor trailer trucks, plunged into the Mianus River about 12:30 a.m. The three westbound lanes of the bridge on the Connecticut Turnpike remained intact but about 100 feet of the three eastbound lanes gave way, police said. State police said one body was rec overed but the bodies of the other two victims were entombed in their BMW in about 15 feet of water. The dead truck driver was identi fied as Harold W. Bracyjr., of Slidell, La. Police Chief Thomas Keegan said Welden climbed out of a wrecked Toyota Celica which landed on the shore of the river. The Paces climbed from the cab of a tractor trailer truck that landed in the water and leaned against the bridge abutment. Fire Chief John Titsworth said the cars dropped 70 feet into 10 to 15 feet of water in the river. Twisted wreckage, chunks of con crete and asphalt and live power lines were knocked into the water when a 100-foot section across three lanes of the bridge, part of the main thor oughfare between New York and Connecticut, collapsed for a still un known reason. “The westbound lanes are also closed pending structural evaluation by engineers,” state police spokesman Adam Berluti said. United Press International AUSTIN — Gov. Mark White says a brucellosis control law he signed into law should remove all barriers preventing Texas cattle from being sold in other states. “I credit the Legislature for its promptness in addressing this vital issue during this first called session, as well as the U.S. Department of Agri culture for its promptness in recog nizing that Texas is now able to meet all federal regulations,” White said Monday. Nearly 20 states had either embar goed shipments of Texas cattle or were threatening to do so because the state was not in compliance with fed- leral regualtions for controlling the disease. Brucellosis is a contagious disease that affects the reproductive system of cattle, causing them to fail to con ceive, abort or to bear weakened calves. White called the Legislature back into special session last week to pass a brucellosis control bill that would meet federal requirements. Under a compromise bill passed by lawmakers, ranchers who raise their cattle only for slaughter will be largely exempted from brucellosis testing and vacination requirements. A 1979 court order obtained by a South Texas rancher had left the Texas Animal Health Commission without authority to enforce the state’s earlier brucellosis control program. After the Legislature failed to approve a program during its regular session earlier this year, the USDA called for a federal quarantine of Texas cattle on June 1. But a federal judge temporarily stopped the quarantine from taking effect, and the USDA gave the state until July 27 to adopt an acceptable program. Vatican, Poland 'dealing' United Press International VATICAN CITY — In a deal with Poland’s government before Pope John Paul IPs trip to this homeland, the Vatican agreed to urge Solidarity founder Lech Walesa to step aside in return for a pledge to lift martial law and enact reforms, informed sources said. Vatican and other church sources, who spoke Monday on the condition they not be identified, also disclosed the pontiff approved the firing of the Rev. Virgilio Levi, who wrote about the agreement Friday in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano. He was deputy director of the news paper. The sources said several top Vati- 1 can officials persuaded the pope to ask Walesa to step out of the public eye — at least temporarily — as part of a broader agreement with the Pol ish government. They said the government prom ised to institute reforms and eventual ly lift martial law, imposed Dec. 13, 1981, and partially suspended a year later. Archbishop Achille Silvestrini, sec retary of the Vatican’s Council for the Public Affairs of the Church, fashioned the agreement during a visit to Poland before the pope began his trip on Thursday, the sources said. The sources, all close to the Vati can’s secretariat of state, said John Paul discussed details of the agree ment in two meetings during their trip with Poland’s military leader, Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski. In Poland, sources in the banned Solidarity labor union underground also said a deal probably was struck during Walesa’s secret meeting with the pope Thursday. But they said John Paul told Walesa the lifting of martial law would depend on whether Solidarity stopped demonstrating in the streets. The sources, in Walesa’s home town of Gdansk, did not mention Walesa’s stepping down as part of the deal. Levi, 54, a church expert on Poland and friend of Walesa, was aware of the behind-the-scenes diplomacy be fore the trip and the editorial re flected that knowledge, the sources in Rome said. The sources said Silvestrini, Secret ary of State Agostino Casaroli, Polish Primate Cardinal Jozef Glemp and Bishop Luigi Poggi, the Vatican’s spe cial envoy for Eastern Europe, con vinced the pope only a broad agree ment could assure Polish renewal and lead to the lifting of Western econo mic sanctions. gent, -ive, Other side of the fence wm staff photo by Peter Rocha A temporary fence was placed around the restoration of the landmark. Exterior Academic Building Monday so work will begin on the building in early construction crews could prepare for August. No interior work will be done. American balloonists killed in race mishap PLO factions announce alliance o end mutiny against Arafat „ United Press International Two Palestine Liberation Organi- m factions say they will join forces an effort to end the mutiny against er Arafat, two days after the PLO f was expelled from Syria for ing Damascus of aiding the re in. Ajoint statement Sunday said the ist-Leninist Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine, would forces. “The decision to merge the PFLP the DFLP does not form an ce against anyone, but it is aimed enhancing the unity of the entire the statement said. “(One of the objectives) is to form a ified Palestine Liberation Army,” it Wed. In Lebanon, fighting between ristian and Druze Moslem militia- >en today spilled from the moun tains east of Beirut, with shells crashing into residential and indust rial neighborhoods, police and wit nesses said. Sunday’s declaration came two days after Arafat was expelled from Syria after accusing Damascus of aid ing the six-week mutiny within A1 Ratah, the largest and strongest PLO faction. “Arrafat’s expulsion frm Damascus is an insult to the entire PLO,” said an official of the PFLP, led by George Habash. The statement gave no details of the merger and did not mention Ara fat’s expulsion from Damascus as a direct cause for the move, but the PFLP official said Habash and DFLP leader Nayef Hawatmeh would.take a joint stand on the issue. “The PLFP and the DFLP are both sympathetic to the dissidents’ call for organizational reforms within Fatah but they are very much concerned that Arafat remain as PLO chief, a PFLP official said. The dissidents accuse Arafat of giv ing in to Israel following the Israeli expulsion of PLO forces form Beirut last summer. Syria, which expelled Arafat Fri day, said President Hafez Assad met Sunday with a delegation led by Habash. The Syrian news agency re port did not indicate whether Habash was trying to mediate between the Sy rian leader and the PLO chairman. Habib Chatd, secretary general of the organization of the Islamic Con ference, arrived in Damascus late Sunday and said he was going to mediate between the Syrian govern ment and Arafat, Radio Damascus said. United Press International BAD KISSINGEN, West Germany — The balloon that carried famed American balloonist Maxie Anderson and a companion to their deaths may have struck a power line, cutting their gondola free before it plunged into a forest, West German investigators said. Officials ordered autopsies today on the bodies of Anderson, 48, and Don Ida, 49, at a mortuary in Bad Kissingen near the scene of the crash Monday. Anderson, of Albuquerque, N.M., the first man to cross the Atlantic in a ballooon, and Ida, of Longmont, Colo., were manning one of four helium filled balloons left in a Paris- to-Prague race > when the crash occurred. Police said the aluminum gondola broke free from the balloon and dropped into a forest at Schoenderl- ing, in central Germany near the East German border about 42 miles north of Wuerzburg and some 140 east of Bonn. Police seized recordings and a film of part of the flight taken by an amateur filmmaker for their investi gation. A spokesman for the West German Search and Rescue Unit said Monday the crash could have been caused by the balloon striking a high tension overhead power cable. Police specu lated the pair was trying to land be fore they reached the East German border. Rainstorms and light winds forced 17 of the 19 starters by late Monday to drop out of the race, sponsored by the International Herald Tribune news paper to mark the 200th anniversary of the first hot-air balloon flight. A West German Air Force spokes man said Anderson and Ida radioed Frankfurt Monday afternoon 20 mi nutes before the crash, and said they were “in trouble” and had difficulty controlling their balloon. He said police and air force obser vers watched the balloon fly low over the forest with ropes dangling from the gondola. One witness said he saw both men pitching ballast out of the craft. Officials said the balloon dis appeared over a wooded hill and when it was next sighted soaring to ward East Germany, the basket was missing. Police at the scene said the gondola had plummeted into the forest, killing both men. inside Classified 6 Local 3 Opinions 2 Sports 7 State 4 National 6 forecast Partly cloudy with a 30 percent chance of showers or thunder showers through Wednesday. Southeasterly winds of 10 to 15 mph. The high today and Wednes day near 93. The low tonight near 73.