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.