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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 16, 1987)
4 Page 6/The Battalion/Friday, October 16,1987 A GGIELAND PHOTOS NEXT WEEK \ Warped by Scott McC Oct. 19 —Oct. 23 LAST CHANCE FOR FRESHMEN & SOPHOMORES GET IN THE BOOK” 66 AR PHOTOGRAPHY 707 TEXAS AVENUE ACROSS FROM THE POLO FIELD HOURS 9 TO 5 693-8183 V OIM , U.KSS, \HS\l.K\) or WVV VWVV TO VHVVV rs..'OtKUH'bHVvrW C Kv\SA\0 \ . VVVmmSvVX! cwtiKvsrw LKr. wuioo^s toom too?, aawo \kv^ Kivw^xswvmvM WE RE 601 bJ& TO TAKE A NEAR M KNO OLQTE.S.'C.KOS't ET\VV-\KvT), TTWAVLVft- 0VAT0v\\O TOW ENEVSVA') TW RISK KFA: porate in' state fram to the Tex industry s| Waldo by Kevin Thonj Jackson takes campaign to town on Mexican bordt EDINBURG (AP) — The Rev. Jesse Jackson took his presidential campaign to the Mexican border, describing its poverty Thursday as , an “international disgrace” and say ing a war with drug smugglers inten sified there. Jackson, 46, met with residents of a community located two miles north of the Mexican border called “La Frontera,” and stopped along a cali che road at the plywood home of 73- year-old Placida Torres. Residents told Jackson the neigh borhood, known locally as a “colo- nia,” was developed four years ago but did not obtain drinking water until March and remains without home with a plywood sign reading, “Viva Rainbo (sic) Coalition." State officials estimate that be tween 150,000 and 250,000 people in the southernmost part of Texas, known as the Rio Grande Valley, live in colonias. The colonias are usually rural, substandard subdivisions de veloped with inadequate utilities and drainage by real estate developers. While at the colonia, ht federal immigration [ tially responsible for the [ Mexico and South Texas, congratulated the BorderP its efforts to stop drug d| smuggling. sewage connections. “This is on the edge of national shame and international disgrace,” Jackson said. He greeted some of the 45 resi dents congregated at the Torres “This is a kind of little Ethiopia right here in our own face,” Jackson said in the yard equipped with an outdoor toilet. He said he intended to contact House Speaker Jim Wright, D- Texas, Thursday to ask for a con gressional hearing “to put some light on the situation.” Jackson also said colonias are “a byproduct of the lack of a housing policy.” Efforts to stop drug i should be as scrong as ihoxh government devotes todtfe allies against communism, told Silvestre Reyes, the Sot trol's chief patrol agent McAllen Sector, Reyes told Jackson that a] of drugs seized by agentsiiij tor since 1982 has increase;:! hundredfold, and that srj are armed “with thelatesiwt including hand grenades, He said 38 percent of tit j drugs brought to the Unitsf enter through South Texas OPEN SUNDAY 12:30-5:30 I The Original Roper. 0 The New Price. days only! | Hydrologist: Hundreds of dangerous wells exist in Permian Basin ROPER ® Quality Bootmakers Since 1879 ^ First Quality Only! ifc ^ REG. 125 | An Easy Choice, MadeTough by Justin. $ | ENTIRE SELECTION /~rx ( >9 *Tr\99f i OF MEN’S & LADIES’£ y \ M ! LEATHER ROPERS ^ ^f Special Group Q">jf MIDLAND (AP) — Veiled by thick prairie grass, hundreds of abandoned wells like the one that trapped a toddler dot the oil-rich Permian Basin, and some property owners aren’t even aware of them, a hydrologist said Thursday. Neighborhood children said they occasionally threw rocks down the 8- inch abandoned water well casing that turned into a trap for 18- month-old Jessica McClure, whom rescue workers were still trying to free Thursday afternoon. “What it does is call attention to the hazard, as well as the liability of these (old wells),” said Joe Reed, a Midland hydrologist and environ mental consultant with Reed and As sociates. “There are many, many wells all over town,” although no one knows a specific number of abandoned wells in the city, he said. Reed said many old wells still have pumps inside their casings, but if the pumps have been removed, the cas ings should be capped with a welded steel plate or plugged with cement. Under the Texas Water Well Dril lers Act, landowners are responsible for plugging old wells with cement that haven’t been used for six months or more, Mike Leach, inves tigator in Austin with the Water Well Drillers Board, said. But enforcement of the law is gen erally left up to the landowner, and sometimes people buy land and are not aware of wells on their property, he said. “That’s why it’s a big concern. I’m sure there’s hundreds of holes out there that are just open and a lot of people don’t even know they are on their land,” Leach said. Reed said during his 20 years as a hydrologist in Midland, he has rar ely run into an 8-inch casing — wa ter-well casings in the city are usually 4 to 6 inches in diameter. “That’s very unusual to find someone falling in something that small,” Reed said. "It’s not totally un common, but again it’s something that’s preventable.” Old water wells are abundant in Midland because during the 1940s and ’50s, many homeowners tapped into the shallow High Plains aquifer underneath the city to irrigate their lawns and gardens, Reed said. And Jessica’s neighborhood was once known as rural Midland where wells may have been drilled to use as a primary source of water, Reed said. Senior City Planner Becky Hamm said the neighborhood known as the Permian Estates was annexed into the city in 1952. Neighbor Maxine Sprague said the well where toddler Jessica McClure was trapped has not been used for 20 years. Jessica’s aunt, Jamie Moore and her husband, James, have rented the home at 3309 Tanner Drive, where the 8-inch well is located, since May, , Sprague told the Midland Reporter- - Telegram. Study detof vote about nuclear pli AUSTIN (AP)—Aft whether it is economic;.: plete South Texas Nuck ject’s Unit 2 is not exp©: 1988, three years after in was ordered by the Put Commission, participaffii A nine-day PUC hti the merits in the cate Thursday with testims Paul Chernick, a nuclei'| expert hired by the for Consumer Rate Houston-based group cates project cancellation Unit 2 of the twin-reioj agorda County nudeat scheduled to begin operation in June 191 ham Painter of Houston 8c Power Co., STNP’snS partner.Total cost oft pegged at $5.3 billion,! But Chernick said Unit 2 won’t begin operation until March I* it will cost $1.5 billion I®' the current estimate. “The basic building a nuclear p® a very complicated pn* 5 Nuclear Regulatory CoC rules change over time ■ “So many things can with a project thatcompi' 1 Administrative Li* Howard Fisher, whot® hearings in the case, ^ to make a recommend;: three-member PUC (i 1988, PUC spokesman® said. i o?°or _ \ § $ f, 1 C3TCNDERS BOOT COT $ I OPEN 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Mon.-Sat. Noon-6- p.m. Sun. 1400 Harvey Rd. (Next to Post Oak Mall) 696-8800 El Paso water board to considei school’s request for water hooi Mid-Conti tion, said t creased thi after a 241 The fra the Select! is based or Pri AUSTII I make it eas llem pregn: I was annou: I provider o | new child-] “There Iwith unpl: lyear," Mat jfdirector of jat a news c Jtime, one : has a fertili “Our pre ing these t \W A basketful of cash is better than a garage full of 'stuff' Have a garage or yard sale this week - Call 845-2611 imnirenMii'i i '.TaaiaaiwfflMtOTtwMit.ntiTwwqg EL PASO (AP) — An elementary school which has been without water since it opened may get help from the city’s water board, which will consider bending its rules enough to help provide service to the institution. Employees have had to truck in 10,000 gallons of wa ter a clay to Rojas Elementary School, east of here, since it opened last month. El Paso’s Public Service Board has rules against extending service outside its city limits, and Socorro Independent School District built Rojas without water or sewage hookups. Public Service Board members asked their attorney on WedrtescJ^y to d ra ft an amendment to their rules that wot«ld f allow the school district to tap a water line about a %om the school. MenMjpPi^iud they would consider the proposed amendment Nov. 4. The $2.7 million school is in southeastfl^J ty’s Lower Valley, an unplanned section will’ 1 laws. About 30,000 Lower Valley residents I® | a dependable water supply. Because of the unimproved conditions, 1 ! Lower Valley is inexpensive. The last decaff rapid growth, mostly from poor families J their own houses. Many people buy water ® ' district does, and hope that someday they w connections. The Lower Valley Water District plans $22.5 million bond election Nov. 14. The school’s water-hauling planisnota] the state Health Department, which has® school district to find a water supply by years' Passage of the amendment would allowtj tap into the water line and extend its own pip 84=