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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 14, 1985)
Aggie Democrat announces candidacy in governor's race — Page 4 A&M ready to play for all the marbles against Baylor — Page 10 Texas A&M m m 1 • The Battalion 0I.8I Mo. 225 CJSPS 075360 12 pages College Station, Texas Monday, October 14,1985 Arrest of Palestinian demanded by U.S. val to capture her. The Human Chess Tourna ment was sponsored by the Society for Creative Anachronisms and MSC Cepheid Variable Friday evening on the Quadrangle. Associated Press WASHINGTON — Indignant about Italy’s “incomprehensible” re lease of a Palestinian accused of mas terminding the Achille Lauro hijack ing, the Reagan administration demanded his arrest Sunday in Yu goslavia, where officials indicated they would not cooperate. FBI Director William Webster said Yugoslavian authorities “have declined to detain” Mohammad Abu el Abbas, an associate of Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yas ser Arafat, who was taken into cus tody along with the four men ac cused of hijacking the Italian cruise ship and killing one American. Abbas, whom a U.S. official said was spirited out of Italy disguised as an Egyptian sailor, flew Saturday night to Yugoslavia, where Ameri can diplomats immediately re quested that he be held for extradi tion. • State Department legal adviser Abraham Sofaer, however, said that there still was a chance Abbas could be arrested, though only a slim one. “They may have at this point re fused to detain him,” Sofaer said, “but they have not turned down our request for provisional arrest.” But a government official said Yu- n tap M CS water supply tested for inorganic chemicals hlitoi's Note: This is the first in a five-part series of articles concerning the tap water in the city of College Station and on the Texas ^Kampus. Today's article deals with inorganic chemicals found in the tap water in College Station. Kalherine Knoble’s mother esn’t like the taste of College Sta- ■ water so she bought her lighter, who used to be a Texas |&Mjstudent, a water purifier last :ar for her birthday. When Knoble’s birthday rolled round this year, she realized that le purifier had been connected to er faucet for about a year, and so it as about time to change the filter. As she opened the purifier and ulied the filter out she was sur- rised at what she saw — a mass of lack slime. “It’sjust water that has been going rough there,” she said. “Where id all of that black goo come from?” The answer to that question isn’t syibut what it amounts to is that iere’s more in drinking water than feels the eye. This past August, The Battalion ecured the services of ROMEC, a ■[laboratory, to perform some College Station Tap Water Inorganic Chemicals TDH ROMEC STANDARDS April 1982 August 1985 Arsenic- less than 0.01 na 0.05 Barium less than 0.5 na 1.0 Cadmium less than 0.005 na 0.010 Chromium less than 0.02 na 0.05 Lead less than 0.02 na .05 Mercury less than 0.0002 na 0.002 Selenium less than 0.002 na 0.01 Silver less than 0.0 i na 0.05 Fluoride less than 0.4 .55 1.6 Nitrate as N less than 0.02 1.0 10.0 All iiiiiiiIh i% in ill.- th.iM i-Mt |>i pll Icw-In ;nv i-\jjn ■'M.l in |>.nis pci millio n (mg'! ) unlrvt oilu-rwiM- s|>r< ilit «l 1 In- nui.iii nil T DHM.iimIs Im li N.is l)f|: MtlllU'lll III lll'.tllll." 1 III ■ iiiiiiiIkt \ lisu-tl iintk-i 11 it* S 1 AM) \K1> lu-.K lint; ii lli-u m.iximiiiii allow.ihli- < n u-i nmim'ink'd li n k Tin- imialion ”im*’ Mantis Ini uni .i|)|>li< .ihlt- tests on College Station’s tap water. In addition, Texas’ Department of Health has a set of written stan dards the city of College Station and all public water systems are required by law to follow. They were written to comply with the federal “Safe Drinking Water Act” and the “Interim Primary Drinking Water Regulations” set forth by the Environmental Protec tion Agency. The standards specify the maxi mum allowable levels for certain chemicals in addition to the maxi mum allowable levels for radioactiv ity and biological components of the water. Since College Station’s water comes mainly from three wells in Sandy Point, a residential subdivi sion north of the city, the law states that the water be tested for inorganic chemical levels at least every three years Inorganic chemicals include such things as arsenic, barium, lead and selenium which are toxic to humans when taken in large enough amounts. Benny Luedke, College Station’s water utilities superintendent, said Friday the last time inorganic chemi cal tests were reported on College Station’s tap water was Tune 10, 1982. “It is kind of scary to think that goslavian authorities in Belgrade in dicated during informal conversa tions with U.S. diplomats that they consider Abbas to have diplomatic immunity and therefore wouldn’t detain him. In Belgrade, a Yugoslavian gov ernment spokesman said: “We have good relations with the PLO, and we support the Palestinian cause; You can draw your own conclusions.” Under the extradition treaty be tween the United States and Yugo slavia, “we have up to two months during which they are supposed to detain him and give us an opportu nity to file formal extradition pa pers,” Sofaer said. The release of Abbas by Italian authorities was a disappointment to U.S. officials who had been tri umphant over the dramatic capture of the four pirates. Abbas, leader of the PLO splinter- See U.S. orders, page 7 U.S. official criticizes Italy Associated Press ROME — U.S. Ambassador Maxwell Rabb on Sunday sharply rebuked the Italian government for releasing a top PLO official who accompanied the Achille Lauro pirates out of Egypt, firing a new salvo in the diplomatic row between the two countries. In a two-hour meeting with Foreign Minister Guilio An- dreotti, Rabb also asked for extra dition of the four Palestinians who hijacked the luxury liner and are accused of killing 69-year-old Leon Klinghoffer, a partially par alyzed American passenger. Rabb said he told Andreotti that the release of Mohammed Abbas, sought on a U.S. arrest warrant charging him with being involved in hostage-taking and piracy, was “incomprehensible to the government of the United States and to the people of the United States. Italian judicial authorities had determined there were no legal grounds to hold Abbas, the For eign Ministry has said. Prime Minister Bettino Graxi, in a statement Sunday night, said: “When all the facts are known and examined with objectivity and with the necessary serenity, you will see then that the decision taken by the Italian government . .. was just and wise.” Italian officials had been in strumental in arranging for the Palestine Liberation Organization to help negotiate an end to the two-day hijacking last week in which about 500 passengers and crew were held hostage. Abbas, a close associate of PLO See Italy, page 7 the water we drink has not been thoroughly tested for inorganics since ’82,” said Dr. Rod O’Connor, f resident and chief executive officer or ROMEC at the time he inter preted some of the tap water tests his company conducted for The Battal ion. College Station’s city engineer, Elry Ash, said the reason a test for inorganic chemicals has not been conducted by the city since 1982 is because “the state doesn’t want a chemical analysis from us.” “The state has informed us that they will come and get it (the sample) when they feel it is necessary for one,” he said. Paul Bronnenberg, a sanitarian for the Texas Department of Health’s division of water hygiene, said College Station is not exempt from testing for inorganic chemical levels in the tap water every three years as specified in the state’s cur rent drinking water standards. “However he (Ash) is partially correct when we (you) realize that the state now goes out and collects the sample, where that wasn’t the way it was done in the past,” Bron nenberg said. Bronnenberg said individual city governments within the state still are responsible for securing the inor ganic chemical analysis, but the state collects the sample. The Department of Health has a record of an analysis conducted on Aug. 28, 1984. But Luedke said that analysis was not for the tap water supply, but rather for just one well in the water system. “The last analysis for the entire distribution system was in 1982,” Luedke said. “The test in 1984 was just for one of the wells in the sys tem. The chemical analysis will vary only a small amount at one partic ular well when compared with the analysis of the entire raw water sup ply, Luedke said. Tomorrow: A look at the radioac tivity levels and biological compo nents of College Station’s tap water. \q offers spotting tips for Halle/s comet University News Service One of the first Texans to report leeilg Halley’s Comet says the pub lic should read up on the comet but ivoid purchasing top-of-the-line telescopes they won’t need when Halley's has come and gone. Texas A&M graduate student Paul Bradley of Irving, who first sighted Halley’s in the early hours of Sept. 20, said star charts and a local astrhnomy club can do much to wards helping citizens watch the fabled phenomenon. | Bradlev’s observation, made on a 14-inch telescope operated by the Texas A&M Physics Department, is the first Texas report of Halley’s Comet outside of the powerful Mc Donald Observatory in West T exas ^■possibly the 41-inch scope at Stephen F. Austin University. In December, he said, someone will be the first person to sight Hal ley's Comet with the naked eye since 1910, when the comet last visited. In November, many people should be able to find Halley's with binoculars provided the moon and weather co operate. [ Bradley offered a list of sugges- tipns to persons interested in watch ing Halley’s Comet and its tail that should be millions pf miles long: • Consult lunar tables. A full moon may wash out the comet even at its brightest. The darker the sky, the better. • Study starfinder charts to know where to look, and read up. Several handbooks exist that cost $5 or less. • Get out of the towns and cities where even the haze of building and street lights can wash out the chances of seeing Halley’s Comet. Since the comet will be overhead in the fall and closer to the southern horizon in the spring, it is important that any skylight from large cities be behind you when watching the night sky. • Avoid buying more comet watching equipment than you need. “Most people will be able to see all they want beginning in November with a pair of good binoculars — 7x35, 7x50 or 10x50,” Bradley said. Bigger ones make your hands shake too much. • In the spring, when Halley’s is closest to the Earth, watchers need to make sure they are on high ground with an unobscured view of the southern horizon, where the comet will be only 10 or 15 degrees above the horizon. People living in wooded or mountainous areas should seek the highest point available. Students lead anti-apartheid march Students Against Apartheidlead protest march along University Drive. Photo by JOHN MAKELY By MARK RUDOLPH Reporter Students Against Apartheid at Texas A&M, in recognition of National Anti-Apartheid Day, led about 200 A&M students and fac ulty in a protest march Friday against apartheid in South Africa. Kenyan Norman Muraya, president of the organization, said the reason for the protest was to increase public awareness of apartheid. The march, which started at College Station City Hall, pro ceeded around the northeast cor ner of the A&M campus and ended at Rudder Fountain. Before the march, Muraya told the protesters that Students Against Apartheid takes apart heid very seriously and demands equal rights for the 24 million op pressed people in South Africa. “South Africa, in its darkest hour, is appealing to the United States,” Muraya said. “South Afri cans demand immediate equality — one man, one vote.” Carey Cauley Jr., president of the Brazos Valley chapter of the National Association lor the Ad vancement of Colored People, said before the march that he was very happy to see the protesters. “I never thought I’d see the day when an Aggie would stand up for something,” Cauley told the crowd. Cauley said he was not being crit ical of Aggies, it was just that he had never seen people in the community stand up against something they didn’t believe in. Cauley compared apartheid to America’s history of segregation. “In South Africa, a black man does not exist,” Cauley told the crowd. “In America, blacks were at least considered three-fifths of a man.” Caulev thanked the protesters and told them he appreciated the fact that someone in Brazos County had the nerve to stand up and say that apartheid was wrong. Ron Gay, democratic party chairman for Brazos County, told the crowd that the rally would not bring an end to apartheid, but possibly a beginning to the end. “I ask that each one of you See Students, page 7