Monday, January 30, 1984/The Battalion/Page 11 E
Authorities say facts in
DDT study ‘suppressed’
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Photo by MIKE DA VIS
And he's off!!
Connie VanSchuyver, regional executive for
the Sportscar Club of America, waves on
drivers during the driving course held Sunday
in the parking lot by Zachry Engineering
Center. The timed race was set up to
promote safe driving. Drivers were timed,
and the winner received a trip to Daytona,
Fla., to compete for a national title.
United Press International
HARLINGEN — Authorities
connected with a federally
funded study of the Lower Rio
Grande Valley have told UPI
that vital facts showing con
tinued DDT contamination
were suppressed and the report
was a “whitewash.”
Study officials immediately
denied the charges, and said the
data were subject to various in
terpretations.
But the best federal data, and
privately commissioned tests, in
dicate DDT contamination is
worse than the local study indi
cated.
“The local (study) committee
basically covered it up,” claimed
biologist Cyndy Chapman, a
member of the study group’s
oversight committee, “and made
it a whitewash.
“We ended up with an ex
tremely wishy-washy summary
that doesn’t reflect the data we
have,” she said, “I think there
was a major coverup by chemic
al, agricultural and industrial
groups working together.”
Study Chairman Ersel Lantz
denied any important facts were
suppressed, and saitl that factual
discrepancies were due to a
change in laboratories between
the initial 1981 pesticide report
and a final 1982 version.
He said some data which
appeared in the first report, but
disappeared in the second —
showing, mercury contamina
tion, for instance — may have
been erroneous.
Pei haps, he suggested, re
searchers ‘‘inadvertently picked
up a sample of water where
someone had broken a thermo
meter.” . .
Engineers at Dallas-based
Black 8c Veatch, the study’s con
sultants, said their client — the
Lower Rio Grande Valley De
velopment Council — requested
they not comment. But other
project workers confirmed the
engineers were disturbed; by the
report’s political overtones.
“You wouldn’t believe the
editing that went, on,” said
biologist Linda Gardner, the
project’s research director who
quit in a dispqte over how to in
terpret the data. “They pre
sented it in the best light.”
Said Robin Alexander, a
The attorney said data col
lected by Black &: Veatch had to
be “approved” by a 42-member
Development Council commit
tee, and that a subcommittee,
which included no environmen
talists, edited the final version.
The initial June 1981 report,
obtained by UPI, indicated
“there is apparently a significant
source of DDT contamination
located within the Arroyo Col
orado drainage basin,” which
carries agriculture runoff into
the ecologically sensitive Laguna
Madre, spawning ground of
shrimp, fish and other sealife.
i The study also reported find
ing banned DDT in the Rio
Grande itself, source of 95 per
cent of the Valley’s drinking and
Texas Rural LegaLAid attorney ^ irrigation water, and traces of
who attended subcommittee ses- the compound in municipal wa-
sions: “Theyjust burled it (DDT | ter ,supplies throughout the
data).”
She and former research
director Gardner confirmed the
panel refused to make public
soil samples that indicated high
concentrations of fresh DDT.
Valley.
Fifteen months later, in the
September 1982 study, no traces
of DDT or its residual compo
nents DDD and DDE were re
ported in drinking water.
Casa Chapultepec
1315 South College 775-6052
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Angeles blackened 550 acres
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fore it was contained Friday
night. About 100 firefighters
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United Press International
LOS ANGELES — Firefigh
ters nearly had full control Sun
day over a brush fire fanned last
week by Santa Ana winds that
killed four people and caused
more than $ 1 million in damage.
Power remained out for 2,000
We Do It Right.
The Angeles fire north of Los
Forest Service spokesman.
He said that lower winds and
(higher humidity brought the
fori fire, near suburban La Canada-
nesow ' Flintridge, to near control.
n “It looks real good right now,”
Milosch said. “We should have it
controlled fully by 6 p.m.”
The hurricane-force winds
blowing from the desert last
week also spurred a larger brush
fire that charred 1,200 acres in
eastern Orange County. It was
fully controlled Saturday morn
ing. No homes were damaged.
The hurricane-force winds
that blew cars off highways
Thursday and knocked down
trees and power lines started to
ease Friday afternoon and gave
way by Saturday to mild breezes
throughout most of Southern
California.
The fierce winds blew a van
over a mountain cliff, killing the
driver, and knocked down a
power line that electrocuted a
man. In Yosemite National
Park, about 300 miles to the
north, a man was crushed to
death by a falling tree.
A 19-year-old man who was
blown off his motorbike Thurs
day and hurled against a tree
died Saturday from internal in-
juries at Fountain Valley
Trauma Center.
The property loss, including
destruction of three homes and
damage to four others, was esti
mated at $1.25 million. Six fire
fighters suffered minor injuries.
About 2,000 customers of
Southern California Edison
Company were still without
power Sunday. Most of them
were in the foothills of the San
Gabriel Mountains.
Bob Hull, an Edison spokes
man, said crews worked non
stop and expected to have power
fully restored late Sunday.
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Continental seeks approval
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United Press International
HOUSTON — Having
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beaten down a union challenge,
Continental Airlines was sche
duled to return to federal court
Monday to ask a judge’s approv
al to management’s scheme to
slash labor costs.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge R.F.
Whelessjr. ruledjan. 17 against
a challenge to Continental’s
bankruptcy from unions, which
maintained the action was a bare
attempt at union-busting.
Continental Monday will ask
Wheless to approve its plan to
cut the work force, impose half
pay and require longer work
hours — all actions the airline
has already taken.
Continental filed for bank
ruptcy reorganization Sept. 24
and suspended U.S. flights for
two days. On Sept. 27, it re
sumed flying a drastically re
duced schedule with fewer,
cheaper workers.
The Air Line Pilots Asso-
ciaton and the Union of Flight
Attendants struck Oct. 1 in pro
test. The International Associa
tion of Machinists already had
gone on strike when contract
talks failed Aug. 13.
“What Continental is doing is,
they are filing for court approv
al to do something that they did
in violation of federal law in Sep-
tember,” said Airline Pilots
Association spokesman Dick
Smith.
Continental, which has lost
more than $500 million since
1979, repeatedly has said it is not
union-busting but is simply
trying to reorganize itself into a
viable business, thereby saving
jobs for at least part of its work
force.
“We will show the court that
keeping (labor) contracts in
force would not allow this com
pany to move into a profitable
future but could force it to li
quidate,” said Continental
spokesman Bruce Hicks.
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