State & Local
Page 2
The Battalion
Tuesday, September 15,H
Federal government grants
A&M offshore oil contract
By CHERYL HELLER
Reporter of THE BATTALION
Texas A&M University has
been awarded a $4,056 million
federal contract to study the en
vironmental effects of offshore
oil platforms in the Gulf of Mex
ico.
The Geochemical and Envi
ronmental Research Group
(GERG) at A&M will lead the
first of three phases of the Gulf
of Mexico Offshore Operations
Monitoring Experiment
(GOOMEX).
The contract was granted to
Texas A&M by the Minerals
Management Service of the U.S.
Department of the Interior in
August. Field work for the pro
gram, scheduled to last two
years, will begin in January and
will be conducted by professors,
graduate and undergraduate
students, according to program
director Dr. Mahlon "Chuck"
Kennicutt II.
"The purpose of the study is
to study oil platform sites that
have been in operation for at
least 10 years and find out
whether the practices we use to
maintain our oil resources are
detrimental to offshore marine
ecosystems," Kennicutt said.
Kennicutt said that previous
studies have shown that toxic ef
fects from offshore production
are limited to the immediate
vicinity of platforms. However,
lasting biological effects have
yet to be studied.
The A&M group will exten
sively study five offshore fields
during four field activities that
include 56 days at sea.
"The sampling plan should
detect any contaminants up to
nearly two miles from the plat
forms," Kennicutt said. "A key
element is to provide a study de
sign to recognize human in
duced changes."
Questionable resume
Candidate criticizes official's claims
Rio Grande Valley cotton farmer!
finish season in financial distress
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HARLINGEN — Rio Grande Valley cotton farm
ers ended their season ir better shape than expected,
but 1992 was yet another bad year for the region's
growers, an agriculture official said Monday.
Figures released Monday show farmers in the
four-county Valley region produced 268,306 bales,
down from more than 340,500 bales in 1991.
The average yield was slightly higher than a bale,
or 500 pounds, per acre.
"While these yields are better than what we antic
ipated, they still weren't enough for a lot of growers
to escape financial problems," said extension agent
John Norman, who tracks the economic impact of
cotton in the region.
Farmers throughout Texas have had similar prob
lems.
Everything from the Valley to the Coastal Bend to
just south of Waco has been disappointing, said Carl
Anderson, an economist with the Texas A&M Agri
cultural Extension Service.
"It's just not a good year for cotton," Anderson
said.
Norman said the Valley's crop was worth an esti
mated $79.8 million in gross sales.
The crop was worth about $260 million to the re
gion's economy and accounted for some 5,500 jobs.
"It's still below what we consider to be anon;
crop for us," Norman said. "In fact, forsomegra
ers it was too far below normal. ... A coupler
have to stop farming this year. This cotton crop*
the reason."
Growers faced trouble earjy, with unusual
heavy spring rains delaying planting in some®
and later destroying some fields altogether.
An estimated 43,000 acres of the 303,000aoi
planted in the Valley were lost to the weather-pa
ticularly in Cameron County and southern Wilk
County — costing farmers about $13.2 milfe
Growers in Hidalgo and Starr counties generally
caped the battering rains.
Farmers also lost money fighting off unexpecfe
infestations of the tobacco bud worm. And lowcs
ton prices are expected to add to their burden.
"So it's not a pretty picture we're painting hert
Norman said, adding that farmers have facedseva
difficult years recently.
Last year. Valley growers lost some $30 million!
a direct result of the sweet potato whitefly, wk
ravaged crops throughout the region. The loss toft
economy was upwards of $100 million.
Before that, farmers were struggling wi
drought that entirely shut down some cropsintii i?
dryland areas.
This year's Valley crop was just another blows |
an ailing Texas cotton industry.
AUSTIN (AP) - Republican
candidate Barry Williamson
accused Railroad Commission
Chairman Lena Guerrero's of a
"second big lie" Monday over a
claim that she was a member of
the Phi Beta Kappa academic
honors society.
Williamson said Guerrero
showed an "appalling lack of
credibility and integrity" by
claiming for 12 years to hold a
college degree she didn't have,
then by denying that she ever
took credit for the scholarly
honor.
"That web is starting to grow
of deceit and misrepresentations.
And that's unfortunate in a public
official of this state," Williamson
said after he and Guerrero taped a
joint television appearance.
Responding, Guerrero said she
had believed she was a graduate
and never personally claimed to
be a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
She accused Williamson of
using an honest mistake about her
college record to divert attention
from his family's oil and gas
holdings, businesses the Railroad
Commission regulates.
The Democrat described
Williamson, a former U.S. Energy
Department appointee, as "a guy
who spent five years in
Washington, D.C., whose wife has
oil and gas holdings, and whose
father-in-law is in the oil and gas
business. And now he wants to be
the fox to go guard the henhouse.
"It was very clear to me in this
debate today that as long as he
can keep bringing up the
academic record, then he doesn't
have to deal" with conflict of
interest questions, Guerrero said.
The two clashed during and
after a taping of the program "The
State of Texas."
It was their first face-to-face
meeting since Guerrero
acknowledged last week that she
wasn't a 1980 University of Texas
graduate.
"Until Thursday, I really
believed in my heart that I had
completed my course work at the
University of Texas," she said.
But during the debate and a
news conference Monday,
Williamson accused her of other
exaggerations in her resume.
He gave news reporters a 1984
biography from Guerrero's state
House campaign, in which it was
stated she belonged to Phi Beta
Kappa.
Guerrero told a news
conference that she hadn't written
the campaign biography
Williamson distributed.
She also said she was unaware
of a 1985 Texas House biography
which claimed the academic
honor.
Williamson called those
statements "the second big lie
she's perpetrating on the people
of Texas . . . We can't have
someone leading $60 billion
worth of industry that is not
honest with the people of Texas,"
he said.
Group fights politician for New York's trash
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN (AP) - A group of
Sierra Blanca residents rallied at
the Capitol on Monday, asking
Texas Attorney General Dan
Morales to stop his attempts to
block the spreading of New York
City sludge in West Texas.
Morales has asked the Texas
Water Commission to reconsider
a permit for the massive sludge
operation in Hudspeth County,
about 90 miles southeast of El
Paso.
MERCO Joint Venture has a
six-year contract to dump sewage
sludge from New York on arid
rangeland.
H.A. "Speedy" Virdell of Sierra
Blanca said the operation pro
vides jobs to the area, while the
process of spreading the sludge
will replenish the land.
"We welcome MERCO into our
community," Virdell said.
About 50 people aboard two
buses took the nearly 500-mile
trip to Austin for the rally. Refer
ring to Gov. Ann Richards, they
chanted, "We love Ann. Please
stop Dan."
Tony Parada, a Hudspeth
County rancher, said Morales was
"messing with our livelihood, our
jobs. I have seen nothing but posi
tive results from the work on this
project."
But Morales said he doubted
the sludge would have a benefi
cial environmental impact. "If
this New York City human feces
is so great, I don't understand
why they don't want to dump it
in New York City."
He said Oklahoma-based MER
CO had orchestrated the rally to
defend its $170 million contract
with the city of New York.
"I do not want to see let
moving toward becoming
garbage-based ecorumu
Morales said, adding that thee?
eration near the U.S.-Mexico txs
der had also raised concernsvi:
Mexican officials.
Rally leaders denied that MB
CO had put together the
Virdell said about eight ofth
people at the rally were MERC
employees.
Virdell said state official
showed no interest in the pa;
when the land MERCO is usi;
was abused by others throapl
overgrazing or drilling for oil,
Richards' office said itwasnei
tral on the sludge operation. Ket
th Jones, Richards’ agriculturi!
advisor, said the technology
by MERCO has been successful!
other areas of the country.
Maximize your utility this
semester with the
ECONOMICS SOCIETY
First Meeting
Wednesday, Sept. 16
7:00 p.m. 158 Blocker
• ECON Test Files
• Grad & Law School Info.
• Field Trip
• Guest Speakers
ALL MAJORS WELCOMED
The Battalion
ATLANTIS TILLMAN, Editor in Chief
STEVE O'BRIEN, Managing Editor GARY CARROLL, City Editor
JASON LOUGHMAN, Opinion Editor J. DOUGLAS FOSTER, Sports Editor
MEREDITH HARRISON, News Editor CHRIS WHITLEY, Sports Editor
HEIDI SAUER, News Editor KARL STOLLEIS, Photo Editor
TODD BLACKMON, Arts & Entertainment Editor
Staff Members
Reporters — Melody Dunne, Mark Evans, Todd Stone, Sharon Gilmore, Brandi Jordan,
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Columnists — Anthony LoBaido, Stacy Feducia, Dwayne Purvis, Shawn Ralston, Matt
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Clerks — Darra Dees, Jane Harvey, Shelley Rowton and Jamie Anderson.
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