University of Kansas
The University Daily
Lawrence, Kansas
KANSAN
Thursday, June 12, 1980 Vol. 90, No. 145
Chemical barrels at landfill safe if rinsed. official says
By HURST LAVIANA
or AKURT THUNG
Staff Reporters
Somewhere under the pools of stagnant, bubbling water at the Douglas County Landfill lies 10 years of accumulated trash. Included in that trash are chemical drugs from weed control operations, including some that once contained the deadly herbicide 245-T.
Chuck Linn of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment said the empty drums were safe as long as they had been triple-rinsed with water, which is required by federal law. If they are not rinsed, the drums could contain a highly poisonous substance, dioxin, which, according to McLaughlin of the Environmental Protection Agency, is 100,000 times as toxic as strvchine
Linn said, "I doubt that all farmers take the trouble to rinse the empty drums."
McLAUGHLIN SAID the amount of dioxin in 245-T varied from batch to batch because it was a byproduct of the manufacturing process. Dioxin occurs by accident, and the producers did not
even know it was present until it was blamed for deaths, he said.
The dangers of dioxin were exhibited dramatically in Seveso, Italy, in July 1976. An explosion at a chemical plant there discharged a thick, white cloud that contained dioxin. The cloud covered more than 1,000 acres of the town and led to the deaths of 81,000 domestic animals. The cloud also suffered from liver and endocrine damage, impaired vision, nausea and diminished sex drive.
There already is fairly significant surface water pollution at the landfill site, Linn said. Heavy rains could wash whatever is in the standing water into the river, he said.
ACCORDING TO WORKERS at the landfill, the county has, in the past, buried chemicals" in the bottoms," the low-lying area near the Kansas River.
Equipment operators at the site said they saw some drums, usually empty, come in.
K. T. Joseph, a chemist at the water and waste treatment plant in Lawrence, said the Safe Water Act required that local drinking water be tested for 24-tail at least every two years. He
said he tested the Lawrence water at least once a year and that the quantities of 245 T never had exceeded 10% of the capacity.
Joseph said he thought that even if dioxin found its way into the Kansas River, the normal water treatment operations probably would remove it.
MELAUGHLIN AGREED. He said dioxin is a large molecule that tended to cling to clay. He added that the amount of water the water purifying process, and the dioxin molecule would be removed at the same time. He said the odds of dioxin ever making it through the soil were small; it were small that they were incarcalable.
John Gobetz, who works for the Douglas County Noxious Weed Department, said the chemicals used in the fertilizer and the chemical could still be sold to persons qualified to use restricted herbicides. He said the department formerly rinsed its empty cans three times, crushed them, and then took them to the dump.
"It's generally safe, as long as you don't put it
in DIOR backpacks."
CHUCK ISAACSON/Kansan staff
On a farm a few miles from the Douglas County Landfill, a collection of used herbicide dross rots the landfill. Laurance's trash can for the past 10 years, could have many dross with doxychlor, the toxic chemical used in pesticides.
Juan Romero is 87 years old and has lived in the same house for 66 years, but if a tavern opens next door he says he will have to move. The East
Lawrence Improvement Association and two of Romerus's neighbors have joined him in his fight to keep the tavern's door shut.
Legal battle joined to bar new tavern
By LAURA LUCKERT
Staff Reporter
Because Romero speaks only Spanish, he has asked his son, Valentin Romero, to fight the legal battle to prevent the city from issuing a building permit. Tom Hayden, owner of the property next door.
For Juan Romero, "no hay sitio como casa"—there's no place like home. But, after 66 years of living at 904 Pennsylvania Skt., the 87-year-old Mexican immigrant says he will be forced to move if a tavern opens 15 feet from his bedroom window.
Hayden said that only some plumbing and electrical work remained to be done on the ivy-covered limestone building on the property before the East Side Tavern would be ready for business. The building has blocked his building twice and now the neighborhood has joined to fight its opening.
THE ROMEROS; two other Pennsylvania Street residents, Henry Wilson, 946 Pennsylvania St., and Andy Wilson, 942 Pennsylvania St.; and the East Lawrence Improvement Association filed a lawsuit against the city last week.
Romero's daughter-in-law, Elizabeth, said that because of his age and his arthritis her father-in-law usually went to bed around 7 p.m. or earlier. A bar close to his bedroom window, she said, would make it impossible for him to sleep.
"I don't approve of this kind of thing at all."
Juan Romero said as his son interpreted. "Why can't he put the bar in his office?" That way it wouldn't be right next door to us."
Romero said he was concerned not only about the noise, but also was afraid that a bar would
bring street lights and shootings. He said he would move if the tavern became a reality but added it would be hard to move out of a house he had lived in for so long.
"I know everyone on the block," he said. "If I knew you, I would be confident just like when I moved to Dallas."
HAYDEN SAID that there would be no problem with the Homers living next door to the
"We have an agreement that I will plant trees and vines in between the tavern and the Romans."
There are other neighbors who are as concerned about the proposed lavern as the
Andy Wilson, who lives six houses from the proposed tavern, has organized most of the legal action against Hayden. He said that the neighbor had no personal grievance against Hayden.
"It is just that for the past two years this block
has been stalled," he said. "His street has really been trying
to stabilize."
"Many of the houses around here were vacant or very run down up until a few years ago. Recently though, many people on the block have been fixing up their places."
Wilson, who is renovating his own house, said the bar probably would not attract students, but "riffraff." He said knifings, such as those that occurred at the now-c closed Green Gable Cafe on east Eighth Street, would be the kind of problems Hayden's bar might cause.
Hayden was asked if he thought his tavern would bring "riffraf" into the area.
"No," he said, chuckling. "Riffraff in east Lawrence?"
Deportation looms as threat to Iranian students
Bv SUSANANAMNUM
Staff Reporter
Many KU Iranian students fear they may be
lost in the United States, an Iranian
student said Tuesday.
Many are spending money on lawyers to appeal their departure notices and others are disappearing into large cities, where they hope immigration officials will not be able to find them. The student, who wished not to be identified because she thought her views would be unmonoid.
But Mahmood Amani, another KU Iranian student, said, "We're not afraid; we ready for anything. If we have to go, we'll go. The only thing we want is to be of service to our country when we get back."
"We're afraid." she said.
In addition to a no-renewal policy imposed
several months ago on Iranian students' visas, the U.S. government has proposed a regulation that would place a specific date of departure on current visas. Many Iranian students have duration-ofstatus stamps, which allow them to stay until their studies are completed.
Both Clark Coan, KU director of foreign student services, and Amani said that by the fall semester, all Iranian students might have an official departure date. This could mean that they would have to leave the country at fairly short notice. Coan said, and that KU would have no more Iranian students. He said that many students normally returned to academic careers after or before their other countries such as England. But England not one of the nations considered by Iran to be at odds with the Islamic government for economic reasons.
If Iranian universities were closed, and access
to other countries were blocked, Coan said,
"Where would the students go?"
The London Daily Telegraph recently reported from Tehran that Iran's religious leaders had proposed closing the universities—traditionally political activity—for five months to two years.
Amani said he had heard only rumors on the subject, but that he would support it as a necessary means of overhauling the educational system in Iran.
One student said her parents in Iran had told her during a recent telephone conversation that a two-year shutdown had been put into effect. It is not clear how much the government is closing down the very places
But Iranian students who asked not to be in the university said that reports on closing the university were false.
where the revolution was born during Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi's regime.
Another student said friends in this country bad confirmed the reports.
"This man is an anti-intellectual," she said, referring to Aatollah Khomeini, revolutionary leader, whose government has faced clashes between the nationalist Islamic groups on university campus.
Javad Dehagani, an Iranian graduate student in geology whose sister teaches at a university in Iran, said several weeks ago that the universities were still open. But he cited the volatility of Iranian campuses as a reason for past and possible future shutdowns.
Coan said that closing the universities for two years would be a blow to Iran, resulting in an educational gap and a lack of trained people to attend the university. The People's Republic of China is now plaguing the People's Republic of China.
Amani said he supported the proposed closings and other restrictions placed on individuals in Iran, calling them essentially intermediate steps on the ladder leading to a true Islamic society.
Dehagan said that he had learned in a recent letter from his father that the Iranian government was now classifying the academic fields of nursing and pharmacy, which were enrolled in humanities programs, he said, are receiving monthly checks amounting to only half the amount of money of students studying medicine.
"Iran lacks technology," he said. "The government has to build up the country, so it's only right that most of the funds sent overseas for training people who can best serve the nation."
As for recent reports that Iran is cutting off funds to students in countries that are at odds
see IRAN back page
By MARK PITTMAN
Mediator requested for police conflict
Staff Reporter
Negotiations between Lawrence city officials and the Lawrence Police Officers Association on a work agreement for the police have stalled and appear headed for mediation.
The situation is aggravated by the fact that the chief negotiators for both sides admit that they will not make compromises.
Gary Sampson, chairman of the Lawrence Police Officers Association, said yesterday "Kevin Burt, (director of personnel relations for the law enforcement) is not guilty of conflict. I don't know if I can believe him."
The minimum offer acceptable to the LPOA,
he said, is a 10 percent cost-of-living pay in-
crease.
the city insists on a multi-year agreement. All other issues are negotiable.
Burt said, 'There's been a failure to bargain in good faith. It's hard to take these 'meat and bone' issues seriously when you find them contained in a textbook.
THE WORD-FOR-WORD text of the proposal submitted by the LPOA is taken from the book titled "Critical Issues in Police-Labor and the Association of American Police Chiefs."
Burt said the LPOA's proposal would undermine management rights.
Sampson said, 'The book spoke to so much of our situation that we used it to start the negotiations. We wanted to set this on the table and say, 'These are our concerns.'
"We're not trying to undermine the authority of the Chief, that's baloney. I have heard of her before," she said.
As a result of the disagreement, a federal mediator has been requested by the city, but the
"If this happened on the street we'd call it extortion. 'Samson said.' I just wish he (Burt) would."
"There is little possibility of a strike
"We all came into this job knowing we were municipal employees and that we couldn't hire anyone to support right now for any work action, like a strike or a work slowdown. The worst thing they did was that they would kill us."
The LPOA represents 57 of 59 officers.
Weather
The weather forecast for today is sunny, hot and gusty, with winds from the south at 20-30 mph. The high should be 92, and the low 71. Wind speeds up to 70 tonight. Winds will continue to be out of the south at 10-20 mph.
Humid temperatures and partly cloudy skies will usher in the weekend. Highs Friday should be near 93, with lows in the mid-70s.
Saturday's skies will remain partly cloudy with a high near 90. Thunder showers may move into the area on Sunday, when temperatures will be in the upper 80s.