ol. 82 No. 182 CISPS 045360 6 pages
College Station, Texas
Thursday, July 24, 1986
lobiess rate Fire school’s waste water violates permit
ip in B-CS
)tudentjobs
emain steady
By Olivier Uyttebrouck
Staff Writer
By Karen Kroesche
Staff Writer
[■espite a 35 percent increase in
te unemployment rate in the
Iryln-College Station area, jobs still
| (Brelatively easy to come by for
exas A&M students, local employ-
■av.
Statistics released by the Texas
T H)loyment Commission Tuesday
Haled that the number of unem-
Heri in the local area has jumped
1 V ® ^ P ercent * n May to an all-
. H high of 9 percent in June.
' 5 I laiip Patterson, Labor Market
IHlyst for the Texas Employment
® Himission, says university stu-
fentsare included in those statistics.
Hmployers on and off the campus,
1 Hever, said that student employ-
I H ^ as re mained about the same
1 I’ ' n some cases > b as increased.
^^^■aren Burke, Senior Academic
1 Hiness Administrator in the Col-
ege of Business Administration,
tayl there has been no actual cutback
Htudent worker jobs throughout
B H college. Instead, she says there
f; Hbeen an increase in the number
I IHudents hired.
! “Because of the hiring freeze on
T-time personnel, within the Of-
ice of the Dean we actually in-
crelised our number of student wor-
kefs.” she says, speculating that the
Situation is the same throughout the
University.
Hn fact, the Texas A&M Depart
ment of Food Services, one of the
largest student employers on cam
pus. is lacing a similar situation.
Rav Muff, personnel manager for
Pood Services, says that his office is
airing more student workers to fill
.vhat used to be full-time staff posi-
ions.
iglt’s going to be a reverse situation
lor us,” he says. “ The budget situa-
ion has led us to hire student work-
;rs instead of full-time workers.”
Two student workers can be hired
olill one 40-hour shift without re
siling the added benefits that full
ime workers receive, he says.
■Vhile the number of student
workers employed by Food Services
s Idrastically reduced during the
iummer months, Muff still noted an
ncrease in student employees in
|une 1986 as compared to June
1985.
[ Susan Lytle, personnel operations
manager for the Sterling C. Evans
library, another large on-campus
student employer, says that during
the Spring semester the library re-
Hed the allocation of hours for
student workers by 10 percent in re
sponse to the governor’s request for
budget cutbacks. But the 10 percent
reduction was terminated for the
summer months, she says.
Hkdministrators in the Colleges of
Agriculture, Engineering and Lib-
iral Arts say that no actions have
been taken to reduce the number of
student jobs within their colleges.
Financial Aid Assistant Jerri Gad-
3erry in the Student Employment
Bice confirmed the availability of
student jobs. She says that in June
ter office processed 1,088 student
workers compared to 867 students
njune of 1985.
Bocal business merchants who
employ students also noted no de
ceases in the number of students
employed by their companies.
Contaminant levels in waste water
discharged in the last nine months
from the Brayton Fireman’s Train
ing School still violate the school’s
permit with the Texas Water Com
mission. However, an official with
the commission says the school has
improved its record considerably
since 1980.
The school is responsible for test
ing its own waste water discharges
and providing the Texas Water
Commission with the results. In two
test categories, the school exceeds
the limits of the permit by as much
as five times the allowable amount.
Anna Dunbar, a Texas Water
Commission records department
employee, says the fireman’s school
has reported two discharges in the
past 9 months and both have shown
violations of permit standards for oil
and grease discharge and Chemical
Oxygen Demand.
Chemical Oxygen Demand is a
measure of the oxygen-depleting ef
fect that waste water has on fresh
water.
In October 1985 the school re
ported a three-day discharge con
taining 29 milligrams per liter of oil
and grease — nearly double the per
mitted limit of 15 milligrams per
liter.
The same discharge had a Chemi
cal Oxygen Demand of 913 milli
grams per liter, over four times the
permitted level of 200 milligrams
per liter.
In a 250,000-gallon discharge
Hit the Dirt
Photo by Tom Ownbey
A pitcher in a Wednesday afternoon softball game goes after a
wild throw from the outfield on the field next to Dorm 2 and
Dorm 4. The game’s rules are different on this field and include:
Hitting a moving car is a home run, hitting a pedestrian walking
across the field stops play, and a ball that hits or lands in a tree is
still in play.
Shultz: U.S. influence weakened
May L 1986, the school’s wastewater
contained 30 milligrams per liter of
oil and grease and a Chemical Oxy
gen Demand of 1,042 milligrams per
liter, the latter being more than five
times the permitted level.
These discharges were made from
the third and cleanest pond in the
three-pond water cleansing system
built in 1981 following the discovery
of serious pollution problems there.
In 1979, an oil spill at the school
prompted an investigation by three
state agencies which discovered low
levels of PCBs and other hazardous
wastes in the sludges of one of the
school’s drainage ponds, including
benzene and toluene.
In 1981,9,000 cubic yards of soil,
contaminated by waste oils used to
set fires and then drained into the
discharge ponds, was dredged out of
the ponds and placed in a landfill on
school grounds.
Two subsequent Environmental
Protection Agency studies deter
mined contaminants remaining in
the ponds to be at levels acceptable
to that agency, says Jim Edwards,
district representative for the Texas
Water Commission.
However the landfill remains con
troversial and is part of the reason
that the fire school was named as
one of the state’s Superfund clean
up priority sites.
Edwards says the high oil and
grease levels in the school’s waste wa
ter may be a result of leftover resid
ual waste oils.
The residual waste oils were do
nated by various Gulf Coast refine
ries. Some water commission offi
cials say the donations may have
been an illicit means of unloading
contaminated oil. Since 1981, the
University has purchased commer
cial grade diesel, propane and gaso
line to start the practice fires.
Though the University has
dredged the drainage tanks, Ed
wards says some hazardous wastes
still may remain.
“They have never given me a
good explanation whether they were
able to purge all (of the hazardous
wastes) out of the system or whether
they still have some of the effects of
that in the system,” Edwards says.
Jack Donovan, the school’s cur
rent field manager, says that the
See Waste, page 3
Prince Andrew weds Fergie,
kissing couple flies to Azores
LONDON (AP) — Prince Andrew
and his princess tlew away to an is
land honeymoon Wednesday after
marrying in the splendor of British
pageantry and kissing on the palace
balcony for a cheering throng and
watching world.
Andrew’s mother. Queen Eliza
beth II, gave them a good-luck dust
ing of confetti as they left Bucking
ham Palace in an open carriage.
The two 26-year-olds walked into
Westminster Abbey separately as
Andrew, the royal bachelor, and Sa
rah Ferguson, the commoner
daughter of a retired army major.
They emerged hand in hand about
an hour later as the newest pair of
royal highnesses and, by order of the
queen, the Duke and Duchess of
York.
Tens of thousands of Britons and
tourists lined the mile-long route of
the wedding procession from Buck
ingham Palace to the medieval
church in which members of the
royal family have been crowned,
married and buried for 920 years.
Crowds were much larger for the
wedding in 1981 of Prince Charles,
the queen’s eldest son and heir to the
throne, and Lady Diana Spencer,
but that day was declared a national
holiday.
Family and friends gave Andrew
and Sarah a tumultuous, confetti-
strewn sendoff to their honeymoon
in the Portuguese Azores Islands in
the Atlantic.
Discreetly placed television cam
eras gave an estimated 300 million
viewers in 42 countries a prime view
of the day’s events.
Britain’s favorite family kept the
common touch despite the pomp,
and the wedding remained a family
event that brought tears to the eyes
of Prince Charles.
Television viewers saw Queen
Elizabeth, relaxed and smiling, toss
ing confetti at her son and new
daughter-in-law. At one point she
chased Prince William, her 4-year-
old grandson, to keep him away
from the departing carriage.
Cheers from the crowd outside
the abbey grew so loud at times that
the sound filtered through the thick
stone walls into the cavernous space
where Andrew and Sarah knelt be
fore the archbishop of Canterbury,
the Most Rev. Robert Runcie, who
conducted the ceremony.
Sarah She wore an ivory silk satin
dress with a 17 l /2-foot train, by de
signer Linka Cierach. It was beaded
with bees and thistles from her coat
of arms and anchors and waves rep
resenting the royal family’s naval
tradition.
Her thick red hair was down, un
der a veil and a gem-studded tiara.
Her mother Susan, divorced and
remarried, sat near the altar with
Maj. Ferguson during the ceremony.
Sarah chose the traditional service
in which the bride pledges to “obey.”
As her good friend Diana had done
in 1981, she stumbled over her hus
band’s name, repeating Christian
while taking Andrew Albert Chris
tian Edward as her lawful wedded
husband.
Andrew had trouble keeping his
sword out of the way as he slipped
the gold ring onto Sarah’s finger.
Prince William, Charles’s son and
second in line to the throne, got a
case of the 4-year-old fidgets and
chewed the chinstrap of his sailor
hat. The queen smiled indulgently
and some in the audience laughed.
South Africa sanctions blasted
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secre
tary of State George P. Shultz told
Congress Wednesday that imposing
punitive sanctions on South Africa
would lock the Reagan administra
tion into a “straitjacket of rigid legis
lation” and weaken or destroy the
ability of the United States to influ
ence events.
But senator after senator told
Shultz they believe the administra
tion's South Africa policy is unequal
to the task of compelling change in a
society they said is rapidly becoming
polarized and descending into vio
lence.
In testimony before the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, which
echoed President Reagan’s televised
address on Tuesday, Shultz said the
administration is prepared to take
coordinated action with U.S. allies
“to change the mix of our pressures,
positive and negative, to meet the
rapidly changing course of events in
South Africa.”
But he declined to spell out those
measures, saying it is usually coun
terproductive to threaten another
country. In any case, he said he re
mained skeptical about the ability of
economic sanctions to have any posi
tive effect.
Chairman Richard Lugar, R-Ind.,
said he does not believe diplomatic
persuasion would produce signifi
cant changes in sufficient time.
Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, R-Kan,
expressing “keen disappointment”
that the president had not given his
policies a new direction and insfilled
them with “renewed vigor,” told
Shultz: “I believe the time for quiet
persuasion has passed.”
“I agree with the president that
we cannot cut and run from South
Africa,” she said. “But neither can
we simply sit down and shut up.
Now is the time to speak forcefully
and wisely to a friend and to use ev
ery tool available to us to see that our
message is heard.”
Hobby to coll
for tax hike
during tour
of 7 cities
AUSTIN (AP) — House bud
get writers looked at possible
spending cuts Wednesday while
Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby prepared for
a seven-city tour to call for tax
hikes.
Gov. Mark White has said reve
nue increases should only be con
sidered as a last resort to balance
the budget. Speaker Gib Lewis
July 17 reiterated his fiat-out op
position to any tax hikes.
Asked if Hobby was wasting his
time by pushing a tax hike, Lewis
said, “As far as I’m concerned he
is.”
Tax bills must start in the
House.
Lewis said, “I just don’t think
with the economy of the state we
can afford a tax increase.”
Statements like that have not
fazed Hobby.
Saralee Tiede, Hobby’s press
secretary, said, “He’s really defi
nitely concluded the only way to
deal with the problem is a combi
nation of spending cuts and reve
nue increases.”
The problem is a massive,
growing deficit. White said last
week he expects the revenue
shortfall to hit $3 billion by Aug.
31, 1987, the end of the current
budget period, unless cuts are
made.
Reagan boosts Clements' campaign
H DALLAS (AP) — President
Reagan, campaigning at big-
itioney political fund-raisers
across the South, promised “eco
nomic good times” under Repub
lican leadership Wednesday and
derided Democrats as liberal
clumpions of high taxes and
more government spending.
■ As a heated debate opened in
the Senate over his South Africa
policy, Reagan tlew to Dallas to
promote the comeback bid of for-
||ier Texas Gov. Bill Clements.
Khen, he was heading for Miami
B> help one-term Sen. Paula
Hawkins fight for her political
survival.
Before a cheering crowding of
Biousands at the balloon-fes
tooned Dallas Apparel Mart, Rea-
Bm was heckled by a handful of
people protesting his South Af-
I|ca policy and holding up a sign
saying “Sanctions Now.” The au
dience cheered the president
when, at one interruption, he said
“There’s an echo in here.”
|l Leaving his plane on arrival in
Balias, the president was asked
Bout negative reaction from Ca-
Ipitol Hill and elsewhere to his
speech Tuesday opposing sanc
tions against South Africa’s white
minority government. He shook
his head, smiled and said some
thing that was not audible to re
porters.
In Miami, a ticket for a private
reception cost $1,000, with the
proceeds split between Hawkins’
campaign and the Florida GOP.
Last year, Reagan raised nearly
$1 million for the embattled sen
ator, who now' is trailing 11 points
in the latest private poll behind
her Democratic challenger, Gov.
Bob Graham.
In contrast, Clements, trying to
reclaim the office he lost in 1982
to Democrat Mark White, holds a
sizable lead in recent private
polls, as Texas grapples with re
cord unemployment triggered by
the energy-industry crash.
At the Apparel Mart rally, Rea
gan said, “I think it’s a tragedy
that hard times have hit Texas
and the unemployment is as high
as it is in this great state.”
Portraying the 1988 elections
as a political watershed, Reagan
added: “Believe me, the liberals
in Washington know what’s at
stake . . . They know that this may
well be their last chance to steer
American politics way over to the
left; they know that if we Republi
cans do well this November, it’s
going to permanently alter the-
political landscape.”
In both Texas and Florida,
Reagan raised the subject of the
leftist regime in Nicaragua. In
Miami, he likened Nicaragua to
Cuba and vowed, “No dictatorial
power will be permitted, through
the inaction of the United States,
to arm a clique of its followers
and hijack any country in this
hemisphere.”
In Dallas, Reagan took a
lighter approach, noting that he
has referred to Nicaragua as be
ing only a two-day drive from the
Texas border.
“The communist Sandinista re
gime in Nicaragua has made a lot
of mistakes but even they know
better than to get themselves in a
tangle with a bunch of Texans,”
he said.
“Even with all the tanks and
gunships from the Soviet Union,
my guess is that the Sandinistas
would make it about as far as the
shopping center in Pecos before
(former Dallas Cowboy quar
terback) Roger Staubach came
out of retirement, teamed up
with some off-duty Texas Rang
ers and the front four of the Dal
las Cowboys and pushed the
Sandinistas down the river, out
across the Gulf and right back to
Havana where they belong.”
“The communist Sandinista regime in Nicaragua has
made a lot of mistakes but even they know better than
to get themselves in a tangle with a bunch of Texans. ”
— Ronald Reagan.
Free hay eases effects
of drought on cattle
(AP) — Farmers drove 100 miles
and lined up overnight Wednesday
in Georgia for a chance at free hay to
feed cattle starving in a drought that
has cost farmers in the Southeast an
estimated $1.5 billion and forced wa
ter conservation measures.
Although temperatures have tem
porarily eased in the region after 2 , /2
weeks of 100-degree highs, the
death toll since July 1 rose to 42.
Georgia cattlemen lined up
Wednesday at the Atlanta Farmers
Market for a share of 40 tons of hay
donated by Illinois farmers and
flown in by Air Force cargo jets.
“This is our only chance to keep
our cattle alive,” said Sara Dockery
of Royston, who drove 100 miles.
Her husband, Franklin, said, “This
means the cows will survive for five
more days.”
The first farmer in line was Dale
Banford, of Winder, who said he ar
rived Tuesday night. He said he has
had to feed his 60 beef cattle apples
and stale bread, and they ate leaves
off trees blown down in a storm last
week. “This is a short start, but it’s a
start,” he said.
Banford was among about 40
farmers who got up to 50 bales each.
Twenty-five others were turned
away when the hay ran out after
four hours, and some of them left
their trailers behind so they would
be at the head of the line Friday,
when more free hay is to be distrib
uted.
Georgia Agriculture Commis
sioner Tommy Irvin estimated that
in his state alone, farmers will need 2
million tons of hay to feed their
cattle through spring.
Clouds and scattered rain kept the
Southeast below 100 degrees for a
second consecutive day. But Macon,
Ga., came close with a high of 98.
Columbia, S.C., reached only 96
Wednesday and 97 Tuesday.
In addition to the drought, the
heat is killing poultry. About
610,000 broilers have died in
Georgia in the last 12 days, said Abit
Massey, executive director of the
Georgia Poultry Federation.