Thursday, August 11,1988/The Battalion/Page 5
Thursday
ATHEISTS, AGNOSTICS, AND FREETHINKERS:Will meet at 7 p.m. in 604A-B
Rudder to discuss “The Last Temptation of Christ.”
NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS:Will meet at 8:30 in 026 MSC for a general dis
cussion. For more information call the Center for Drug Prevention and Education
at 845-0280.
ADULT CHILDREN OF ALCOHOLICS:Will meet at 6 p.m. in 027 MSC. For
more information call the Center for Drug Prevention and Education at 845-
0280.
AGGIE SPACE DEVELOPMENT SOCIETY:Will meet at 8:30 p.m. in 352 Rud
der. For more information call Mark McCann at 693-3789.
Items for What’s Up should be submitted to The Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald,
no later than three business days before the desired run date. We only publish
the name and phone number of the contact if you ask us to do so. What's Up is
a Battalion service that lists non-profit events and activities. Submissions are run
on a first-come, first-served basis. There is no guarantee an entry will run. If you
have questions, call the newsroom at 845-3315.
El Paso area may get
3rd foreign-trade zone
EL PASO (AP) — A group of in
dustrial developers plans to apply
for foreign-trade zone status for 600
acres of industrial properties.
If the application is granted, the
foreign-trade zone — which carries
special tariff benefits — could spur
growth throughout the city, authori
ties said.
The application has not been pre
pared yet. The city of El Paso is help
ing to write the application and
hopes to have it ready to send to
Washington in October, said Gor
don Cook, director of the economic
development department.
It could take one to two years for
the U.S. Commerce Department to
approve the zone, he said.
Four major developers are in
volved in the application: Foster
Scwartz Development Co., Willie Fa-
rah, Pan American Industrial Park
and Phelps Dodge Refining Co.
The new zone would be the city’s
third.
Foreign-trade zones allow man
ufacturers to import materials to El
Paso without paying tariff, ship parts
to twin plants in Mexico and import
the assembled product to El Paso,
paying tariff only on the added va
lue.
Only a small percentage of com
panies take advantage of the breaks
offered by the zone, said Mickey
Schwartz, who along with his com
pany, Foster Schwartz Development,
owns extensive industrial space on El
Paso’s east side.
“Some are (using the zone) and
some aren’t,” he said. “But it’s a
good promotional gimmick. For
those that want it, it’s there. And it
will be used increasingly in the fu
ture.”
Commission
seeks summit
on energy
AUSTIN (AP) — Texas’ three
Railroad Commission members, two
Democrats and a Republican,
Wednesday joined the call for a bi
partisan, national energy summit
meeting to be held in Texas.
“Since the oil price collapse of
1986, producers and consumers
across the nation have waited in vain
for Washington to stabilize and re
verse the chaos in our domestic en
ergy industry. We’ve waited long
enough,” said Railroad Commission
Chairman Jim Nugent.
Nugent was joined in making the
call by Commissioners Kent Hance,
a Republican, and John Sharp, a
Democrat. All three said they were
joining the call made earlier by
Texas Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, the Dem
ocratic vice presidential nominee,
and Republican Gov. Bill Clements.
“I’ve given my commitment to
Senator Bentsen and Governor
Clements to join their bipartisan ef
fort to craft an effective national en-
ergy policy this fall, a policy that will
reduce our dangerous dependence
on foreign oil supplies and let us
bring our sailors home from the Per
sian Gulf,” Nugent said.
Hance, who has attended recent
meetings of the Organization of Pe
troleum Exporting Countries, said
stability is the key to recovery for the
domestic oil and gas industry.
“Our industry needs a policy they
can believe in, that they can count
on. I believe if we put regional self-
interest and partisan politics aside,
we can come up with a national en
ergy policy that will give us that
badly needed stability,” Hance said.
Sharp said any energy policy
needs to balance supply and de
mand.
“We need an energy policy that
weans us from a growing depen
dency on the Persian Gulf and
moves us toward development of
our abundant natural gas reserves,”
Sharp said.
Who’ll stop the rain?
Normally parched county faces flooding
STANTON (AP) — There has
been an ironic turnabout in how
“precious water” is viewed in this
farming community where rain
usually is better than cash in the
bank and sometimes is as rare as
credit at the bank.
“They (farmers) used to lose sleep
because it wouldn’t rain,” said Roy
Lee Barnhill, a former Martin
County cotton farmer who now is a
professional photographer. “Now,
they can’t go to sleep because they
fear it might rain.”
Surprisingly high rainfalls since
1986 and a rising water table have
flooded thousands of acres of farm
land, eroded roads, and Hooded
about a half dozen farm houses in
northeast Martin County.
5i Sulphur Springs Creek is flooding
its brackish waters into cotton fields
and is fueling salt-cedar shrubs,
which thrive on salty soil and dis-
! place cotton and grasses.
And runoff from summer rains
from the Ackerly area north of here
is flooding farmland in the Brown
and Flower Grove farming areas of
! Martin County and nearby the Knott
community area in Howard County.
i Martin County Judge Bob Dea-
i venport estimated that 5,000 acres
of farmland in northeast Martin
| County are under water. And ap
proximately 50,000 acres have been
taken out of cotton production due
? to the overland flooding and water
| rising to the topsoil from the Ogal-
lala Aquifer.
Damage to cropland, roads,
houses, and other property is esti
mated at $25 million by Nestor Her-
“They (farmers) used to
lose sleep because it
wouldn't rain. Now, they
can't go to sleep because
they fear it might rain. "
— Roy Lee Barnhill,
former cotton farmer
nandez, Martin County executive di
rector of the U.S. Department of
Agriculture’s Agricultural Stabiliza
tion and Conservation Service.
“We’ve got an awful lot of cropland
that’s under water,” Nestor said.
Martin County has more than
122,000 acres of cotton on 302,000
acres of skip-row cotton cropland.
In 1986, Martin County and
much of West Texas received heavy
rainfall — up to about 50 inches of
annual rainfall in some areas where
the norm is a third of that.
“I considered that was our 100-
year (heavy) rain and that wouldn’t
come again,” Deavenport said of
1986. “But we had more damage (by
erosion to roads and croplands) in
’87 than we did in ’86, and now we
are into our third year” of unseaso-
nally heavy rains.
But 1988 looked like a drought
year until late spring and in June
and July, when the gully-washing
rains came.
“We came into the drought pretty
much from October 1987 through
April of 1988,” said Alvin Riddle,
Martin County district conservation
ist for the USDA’s Soil Conservation
Service. “We had sandstorms day af
ter day in the drought period.”
Then came the rains.
“We’ve never had this high-inten-
sity, short-duration rain,” Riddle
said. “And you can’t control it.
That’s the same way with wind.
When you’ve got wind blowing at 75
miles an hour, you’re not going to
control it.”
“We’ve got houses under water.
We’ve got fields that are highly
eroded,” he said. “There’s water
where it hasn’t been in so many
years.”
Sulphur Springs Creek, which
originates in New Mexico and even-
tualy flows into the Colorado River
watershed, is doing a rare thing —
flooding. Historically, the creek has
been mostly dry — until 1986 when
the heavy rains started.
In pondering what to do about
the water problems, the Martin
County Commissioners’ Court is
holding “brainstorming” sessions
with commissioners from neighbor
ing Howard and Dawson counties,
with Colorado River Municipal Wa
ter District General Manager O.H.
Ivie and staff, and with conservation
and planning officials.
Deavenport noted that Martin
County officials and farmers “can’t
solve the dang problem by our
selves.” But apparently no solution
has been proposed except to let the
waters subside if rains hold back and
if the massive aquifer doesn’t con
tinue to rise on its south end.
“There’s no easy solution,” Dea
venport said, “but if we don’t get
started, we’re courting disaster.”
1
!
:
!
I
NEW COURSE OFFERING, FALL 1988:
HEED 489 Special Topics in:
CURRENT
(3 hrs. cr.) TR 2:00-3:15 pm 160 Med Science Bldg
This course is designed to introduce the student to the current pharmacological treatment of a variety
of common health disorders as well as cover a general overview of drug therapy. Topics to be covered
include:
•Generic Drugs: Are They Good? 'Pain Relief -Cancer Therapy
•Megavitamin Therapy -Headaches & Migrains -Drugs in Athletics
•Cold and Allergy Treatment -Treatment of AIDS
•Treatment of Sexually Transmitted Disease
•Treatment of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's Disease
Prerequisite: Junior Classi. ication
For more information, contact Dr. Steven L. Peterson, Course Coordinator,
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, 845-2360.
iravrvr
a” MhL BarJB#
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your home town, independent, community bank. Come in and see how
easy it is to open your FREE checking account today.
Commerce
National Bank
2405 Texas Avenue South College Station, TX 77840
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