Monday, September 9, 1991
The Battalion
Page 3
J
Advocates of higher-education check legislature
Universities hire monitors
FORT WORTH (AP) - Sev
eral Texas universities employ
higher-education advocates al
most full-time when the state
Legislature is in session to moni
tor the progress of legislation
nd university budgets.
It appears to be working be-
ause most institutions of higher
ducation did better than expect-
d during the budget session that
nded Aug. 31.
Like true lobbyists, which
ey can't be, several of the advo
cates treat legislators to meals,
parties, golf games and gifts,
tate law prohibits state employ
es from trying to influence legis
lation.
Records show that in several
lases, taxpayers help subsidize
■hose employees' salaries, travel
and living expenses, the Fort
•Worth Star-Telegram reported
Kunday. However, only non-tax-
ayer funds are used to pay for
ntertainment.
Universities and legislators
efend the day-to-day presence
f the university officials because
hey provide valuable informa-
ion both to the lawmakers and
eir home institutions.
"It's a big business," state
Senate Finance Committee Chair
man John Montford said of the
universities, which have com
bined state budgets of $7.5 billion
for 1992-93.
"You can't expect them to
wear blinders," said Montford,
D-Lubbock.
Higher education emerged
from the 30-day special session
with $250 million more for 1992-
93 than for 1990-91, a significant
boost in light of earlier proposed
cuts totaling millions of dollars.
At the same time major state
universities were successfully
fending off threats to cut higher-
education funding this summer,
they had at least 22 officials on
their payrolls watching interests
at the Capitol.
That doesn't count more than
two dozen outside lobbyists
hired by alumni groups and oth
er higher-education interests, or
university presidents and chan
cellors present for much of the
budget session.
The university liaisons'
salaries and expenses from Sept.
1, 1990, through July topped $1.6
million, according to university
and state records obtained by the
Star-Telegram through the Texas
Open Records Act.Four of those
liaisons earn more than the gov
ernor's $93,532 annual salary.
Seven of them spent more
than $1,000 on meals and enter
tainment for legislators, aides
and officials this year. The top
five would rank among the Capi
tol's top 100 spending lobbyists,
according to a Star-Telegram
study.
"We buy breakfasts, lunches
and pay for dinner," said Texas
Tech liaison Mike Sanders.
The Star-Telegram reported
that Sanders showed up as the
biggest university spender on en
tertainment, with $11,123 since
September 1990.
"Basically, it's a way to get
access to visit with members
about Texas Tech. ... It's a way of
doing business."
Although technically they are
at the Capitol to provide infor
mation and line up university of
ficials to answer questions, the
university liaisons also serve as a
first-alert warning system in a
chain of higher-education advo
cates.
Half of Texas' wastewater streams
through Galveston Bay, report says
The Battalia
ance desp'i
KKK rally draws 500;
few show support
jALLy
■ MIDLAND (AP) - A Ku Klux
Klan rally drew more than 500
ftople to a Midland park, but sup-
*rt for the white supremacist
n ! ■ 0U P was hard to find.
1 Of the hundreds who heckled
and jeered the eight Klan mem-
ha a ii,lp rs w * 10 stood safe behind police
b t ai# es at a chain-link fence at Wind-
; .lands Park, few expressed any ap-
> uicrease m ec i a ti 0n 0 f ff, e Klan's visit.
I ''R l! came h ere f° ask these peo
ple why they hate," said 35-year-
iz . t j old Allen Nichols of Midland. "It's
). •' /".been the group's history to hate
, ir yblacks and Jews. Now I under-
'' 1 l s | an d they stand against foreign-
'th KabWi« s t00 »
H A man identifying himself as
csl Page Lloyd J. Hill, 25, of Dallas waved a
Rebel flag during the three-hour
rilly and claimed to be a Klan
member. He said the organization
hates nobody.
I "The white race hay as much
right as any race to preserve it
self," Hill said. "We don't dislike
anybody. We just feel real strongly
about preserving our race."
The late afternoon Klan rally
on Saturday was preceded by a
"Unity Celebration" that oppo
nents of the Klan staged in down
town Midland. It drew about 300
people.
Greg Owens, Midland Cham
ber of Commerce member, said he
believed the Klan came to Mid
land to create a media event at the
expense of the community.
"But with the support you've
shown by attending the unity rally
today, you've turned what could
have been a problem into an op
portunity," he said.
Klan Grand Wizard Thomas
Robb, 45, of Harrison, Ark., gazed
at the multitude of white, brown
and black people behind police
lines at the Klan rally and said that
Herpetologists express
interest in Texas snakes
I NAVASOTA (AP) - Fred
Friedrichs' snake problems have
slithered away but he's got her
petologists interested, although
skeptical, that some of the dozens
of serpents he killed at his small
Grimes County ranch may have
been a poisonous crossbreed not
seen before in Texas.
1 Friedrichs' ranch near the
Navasota River was invaded
about two months ago by snakes
up to 7 feet long, prompting him
and his wife to arm themselves be
fore they ventured outdoors.
In the span of a month or so,
he killed about 90 snakes, most
them in or around a small barn
and chicken coop behind his
house.
1 The snakes gobbled up eggs
like candy and took a liking to his
pigeons and chicks as well.
I Friedrichs and a local game
warden were convinced some of
the snakes were a crossbreed in-
j volving the venomous water moc
casin and the non-poisonous
: chicken or rat snake.
The individual snakes are
common to Texas, but snake ex
perts say the crossbreed of a poi
sonous and non-poisonous snake
| just can't be.
"No, no way," says James
Dixon, a Texas A&M University
professor and wildlife fisheries
specialist. "You can dispel that
very quickly.
"Probably what he has, from
what I saw, they are chicken
snakes. There are several color
patterns. Some are black and the
younger ones are more blotched
and kind of red in between the
skins. It would be easy to not rec
ognize these snakes.
"But a crossbreed, no way.
They're not even in the same fami
ly. In snake genes, that's a long
way apart."
Texas is home to the four
North American poisonous
snakes: the water moccasin, cop
perhead, rattlesnake and coral
snake.
And the outside chance of a
new venomous snake has Texas
Parks and Wildlife officials inter
ested. Friedrichs says they've
asked him to try to capture one of
his snakes alive so they can get a
look.
"I do know that I've looked at
snakes for 60 years," Friedrichs,
68, says. "I have barefooted over
moccasins and one time was bitten
on the big toe."
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HOUSTON (AP) - Half the
state's industrial and municipal
wastewater flows through Galve
ston Bay, threatening more than
$2.5 million a day in seafood and
tourist dollars, a Houston newspa
per reported Sunday.
Records from the Texas Water
Commission obtained by The
Houston Post showed one in five
of the 800 groups holding wastew
ater discharge permits in Harris,
Galveston and Chambers counties
have violated at least one limit
during two months in the year be
tween June 1990 to May 1991.
In addition, one in 10 permit
holders has violated a limit so of
ten that the 12-month average ex
ceeds the state-imposed ceilings.
The limits pertain to levels of
everything from acid, arsenic and
concentrations of dissolved oxy
gen to oil and grease.
"We hate it," said Lucy Gibbs,
head of the Texas Shrimp Associa
tion, which has noted a loss in
productivity of bay shrimpers
over the past two decades. "We
feel that it's a wonder anything is
living in Galveston Bay."
TWC regulates wastewater
O.K. SO I'VE HAD SORT OF AN
UNDISTINGUISHED ACADEMIC
CAREER. IT'S NOT TOO IA1T
discharges into a series of rivers,
channels and bays. In the Houston
area, that includes the San Jacinto
River which is fed by the Lake
Houston Dam, the Buffalo Bayou
which travels down to the Hous
ton Ship Channel, and a series of
bays, lakes and smaller ship chan
nels from Burnett Bay in the north
to Christmas Bay in the south.
The bay has an annual infusion
of wastewater that is 15 times its
volume.
Critics say TWC does not en
force its own permits and doesn't
fine enough violators. But 22 wa
ter quality inspectors police 1,400
permits in Harris and 13 other
counties, some of which are more
than two hours from their office.
"I think there is always room
for improvement," said John
Ward, program manager for water
quality in the Houston office.
"There're those who will recog
nize a problem and begin to work
on it and others that will have to
be made to do so."
In Texas, dischargers also must
have a permit from the Environ
mental Protection Agency. To
gether, the agencies are adding
more conditions on treated
wastewater entering bodies of wa
ter.
Still there are accidents that
cause heavy metals, toxins, car
cinogens and heavily chlorinated
effluent to join treated wastewater
returning to the bay.
— Last December, Mobil
Chemical Co.'s olefins plant in
Deer Park spewed benzene in one
incident that was five times the le
gal limit.
— Last August, heavy rains
forced the shutdown of the Harris
County Municipal District No. 19
as 3 million gallons of untreated
sewage flowed out, untreated.
— In the first three months of
this year, Houston officials
watched 75 million gallons of raw
sewage flow into the city's three
bayous, creating a $3 million mess.
The EPA and TWC are impos
ing conditions on violators before
issuing new permits.
"They're really putting the
screws on us as to what we can
discharge," said Ken Carey, the
Mobil plant manager.
ASPIRES TO
PUBUC OFFICE
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MOST OF THE REAL WORK.
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Hinko’s-THECOPY CENTER- good CLEAN COPIES,CAMPAIGN FLYERS,ETC,-505 UNIVERSITY DR.W. mm-mi
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