University Daily Kansan, January 21, 1982
Page 3
Waste site sparks lawsuit
By ANNE CALOVICH Staff Reporter
A $13 million federal class-action suit was filed yesterday against the owners of the state's only hazardous waster disposal site and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment after possible cancer-causing chemicals seeped into area ground water.
Officials of the National Industrial Environmental Services, who manage the disposal site in Purlery, had a "potential problem" in design that allowed chemicals to leak into nearby ground water. The leak occurred 10 miles northeast of the state. The state closed the site Monday.
Randy Rathbum, Wichita lawyer, said yesterday he filed the suit in Wichita federal District Court on behalf of what he expected to be 50 years old. The plaintiff is one of the federal Toxic Substance Control Act and a civil rights violation.
Rathbun said the suit was already in the works when the leakage was discovered.
The suit alleged that the site, open since 1977, was a nuisance and the
NIES was negligent in operating the disposal and that the NIES concealed facts.
The suit seeks $5 million in compensation and $10 million in punitive damages, along with the removal of waste or date and removal of remaining waste.
Joseph Harkins, secretary of Health and Environment, said there was no danger to nearby residents' health. "We had no problems, but had been diagnosed early enough."
Cliff McDaniel, NIES general manager, said studies were under way to assess the problem and said they should move to two weeks to devise the best plan.
"We have established rigorous monitoring systems for all the water in the area to make sure contaminated water doesn't come in contact with humans." Harkins said yesterday.
McDaniel said he believed the seepage came from just one area of the disposal, the evaporation lagoons.
Even before the seepage was detected, McDaniel said, NIES had planned to move the lagoons because of a possible design flaw.
If we were constructing the site today, we would not have con-
suctured the evaporation lagoons in the way they were in 1977." McDaniel said, "because the new engineering study just completed indicates a potential problem with the design.
"If the study confirms that the seepage has come from an evaporation pond, the simplest solution will be to drain and eliminate the pond, thereby removing any driving forces for seepage." The problem of trace seepage from our waste disposal site can be corrected."
McDaniel agreed with an estimate by Harkins that said it would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and take several months to correct the
Hazardous materials already en route to Furley will be taken to one of the other waste sites operated across the country by NIES' parent firm Chemical Waste Management Inc. of Oak Brook, Ill.
But McDaniel said he believed the barrel area of the Furley site was secure and hoped it would resume operation within two or three weeks.
John A. Landgrebe, KU professor of chemistry, said the University of Kansas had never sent waste to the disposal site.
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U.S., allies will restrict Soviet trade, yet $19 billion pipeline project stillon
By United Press International
PARIS - The United States and its European allies unanimously agreed yesterday to stricter controls on the use of artificial intelligence technology to Soviet bloc nations.
Soviets, although the project may be scaled down, U.S. officials said.
The decision came at the end of a secret two-day meeting of the Control Committee on Trade with Communist China, which met in November, which met for the first time in 30 years.
But the Europeans refused to cancel a $10 billion gas-pipeline deal with the
The COCOM session was called to discuss a U.S. demand for revision of control programmes and exportation to the Western Union of West Asia that could be used for military purposes.
Details of the agreement reached at the highly secretive meeting were not disclosed, but the NATO allies apparently were unwilling to join President Reagan's wider sanctions against the Soviet Union.
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The officials said, "If all the specialized technology needed to make the pipeline function properly were stopped, the project would be sub delayed for many, many years and become much more expensive."
COCOM, set up during the Cold War 30 years ago, is aimed at preventing the Soviet Union from expanding its influence by buying Western technology.
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