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Wednesday, June 30, 1993
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Capping of research landfill slowed by lack of funding
By Carlos Tejada
Kansan staff writer
The capping of KU's Sunflower Research Landfill will continue as planned despite a lack of funding from the Kansas Legislature, KU officials said.
Work on the landfill, which is located outside DeSoto and contains low-level radioactive waste, will have to be scaled back, said Jim Modig, director for design and construction management.
The capping was estimated to cost more than $2 million by B & V Science and Technology, a contractor hired by KU to conduct the feasibility study. With permission from the Board of Regents, KU requested $2.6 million from the Kansas Legislature for the project.
But the legislature only appropriated about $1.8 million at the end of its session in May.
"We've had to make adjustments to the design to accommodate as much of the work as we can with the funds available," Modig said.
Keith Nitcher, director for business and finance, said downsizing the project while keeping it within the bounds of an agreement between KU and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment in 1991 had complicated matters.
"We are attempting to scale the project down to a level agreeable to the
KDHE." he said.
The agreement outlined concerns regarding the design and implementation of a clean-up alternative, according to a report by the KDHE.
State Sen, Sandy Praeger, RLawrence, the legislature did not appropriate all that was requested because the project is long-term and there would be time to appropriate money later.
"We would hope to go back in next year and do the appropriate actions."
The plan would seal a landfill that has caused problems for KU, the University of Kansas Medical Center and the Regents since seepage was detected in 1982 in test wells dug around it. The landfill had been used since 1964 by KU and the Med Center to dump low-level radioactive waste.
Ruth Schukman-Dakotas, safety officer at the Med Center, said the waste consisted of paper, liquid waste and the carcasses of animals used in experiments.
According to the KDHE, traces of dioxane, a solvent used to detect radiation, were found in concentrations exceeding Kansas regulations in the test wells.
Dioxane, which the Environmental Protection Agency has classified as a carcinogen, also was found in water on the property of Jean Martin, who lived 250 yards away. In 1990, she sued the Regents for clean-up of the
landfill. The Regents bought her land as part of our court settlement
Martin declined to comment on the landfill or her lawsuit.
Schukman-Dakotas said the idea behind capping the landfill was to keep seepage from leaking out and rainwater from leaking in. Layers of new dirt, liners and native clay will be used to make the surface of the landfill impermeable to water. French drains, which would take water from around the landfill and deliver it to a water treatment system, also will be installed.
However, Schukman-Dakotas said the measures would not be foolproof.
After the capping is completed the undulif will no longer pose a threat to the camper.
In the meantime, she said, KU and the Med Center would have to store their radioactive waste at their campuses.
The Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma,
Arkansas and Louisiana region has no dump of its own, so it has had to ship its waste out-of-state. Waste can be shipped to a national landfill in South Carolina until tomorrow, when the landfill will close its doors to out-of-state deliveries.
Schukman-Dakotas said there were no immediate plans to open a dump in the region.
"We may have to store on site for up to five years," she said.
Building outer space shelters part of interesting learning
Reservation teachers' program shows math, science are fun
By Carlos Tejada
Kansan staff writer
While trying to survive the cold lifelessness of Mars, Rose Naranjo and her group used tape and sheets of plastic to build a shelter.
Not all went according to plan, however.
"We built the walls, but we were supposed to build the floors," she said.
Naranjo, a Santa Clara, N.M. teacher, and about 30 other kindergarten through ninth-grade teachers erected Mars shelters out of plastic; box fans and duct tape last Friday in Robinson Center.
The project was part of a program called Math and Science Teachers for Reservation Schools (MASTERS), said Wendell Mohling, associate executive director of the National Science Teachers Association.
The program has been held at the University of Kansas every summer since 1901. MASTERS is supported by KU, Haskell Indian Junior College, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the National Science Foundation. The two-month program instructs teachers in schools that are located in or near Native American reservations. Mohling said.
"It was felt there was a need among the Native American population for enhancement in science and math," he said.
Last Friday's assignment, called Marsville was to create a human habitat complete with food source, waste management and recreational activities. Mohling said instead of using millions of dollars in real equipment,
Mobbing said people sometimes had a hard time believing the plastic shelters, made of cube-shaped plastic sheets inflated by fans, could stand.
"A lot of people say, 'How are you going to hold air in there?' he said. 'Well, it works.'
Mohling said first-hand experience in building a Marsville would help the teachers.
"It's important teachers build these things if they're going to assign them," he said.
Often regular science classes and activities bore students, Mohling said. Hands-on assignments such as Marsville would renew their interest in math and science.
"It's a problem in all schools," he said. "Often, science is a reading course. We want to show them science is something you do."
Mohling said the assignment also could teach students cooperation and leadership skills. Even when the assignment is being done by teachers instead of students, the results of such cooperation can be seen, he said.
"You can see some leaders begin to emerge," he said. Ferris Paisano, Lapwai, Idaho, teacher, said that although he liked the assignment, he thought students had enough to worry about on Earth before they built shelters for Mars.
"We have to learn to get along here before we go any where else," said Paísano, who teaches Native American children from the Nez Perce nation.
"We have to end racism and save the family here before we can think about anything else."