CAMPUS
Two social welfare students help care for AIDS patients as part of their field work. Page 3A
CAMPUS
Study abroad students are warned about reports of sexual harassment in France. Page 7A
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KAN
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
CHILLY
VOL.104.NO.147
TOPEKA, KS 66612
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
MONDAY, MAY 1, 1995
(USPS 650-640)
NEWS: 864-4810
The Dirty Half-Dozen
Farmland Inc., M-Pact, FMC Corp., Davol Inc., Lawrence Technology, UARCO Inc.
These Lawrence-area industries are cleaning up their acts. Or are they?
Photos by Edmee Rodriguez
n 1993 Douglas County's top six polluters spewed, leaked and trucked enough pounds of pollutants into the environment around Lawrence to fill the beds of 695 full-size Ford pickups. But Lawrence's dirty halfdozen are not as dirty as they used to be.
In 1993, Douglas County-based companies emitted 2,796.12 pounds of pollutants into the environment around Lawrence, according to the latest Environmental Protection Agency reports available. Just three years before, in 1990, however, they emitted nearly twice that — 4,418,946 pounds, to be exact.
Have Lawrence and Douglas County companies really begin to clean up their acts? Yes, according to the numbers the companies have reported to the EPA. But finding out where the pollution is coming from, where it's going, and how bad it is for people and the environment can be tricky.
Although Farmand Inc., a nitrogen fertilizer manufacturer, is still the No. 1 polluter in Douglas County, the amount of toxic emission the company eliminated between 1900 and 1993 was more than everyone else in Douglas County added together. Hallmark Cards Inc., the fourth largest polluter in 1990, dropped off the list completely in 1992.
But the picture isn't completely rosy.
Other company, such as FMC Corp., an industrial chemical and machinery manufacturer, and Davol Inc, a disposable medical product manufacturer, did not immediately climb aboard the cleanup bandwagon, apparently. Both companies posted increases in pollution from 1900 to 1993. Davol Inc. increased almost 800 percent in three years, offsetting Farmland's big improvements. The company maintains that almost all its toxic materials are transferred offsite to be recycled, and do not reach the environment.
And even with the overall reductions, toxic emissions in 1995 still included some nasty chemicals.
- Ammonia, aifiable gas that can be fatal if in airborne concentrations of 3.000 parts per million. Ammonia is irritating to the eyes, nose and respiratory tract in smaller doses.
*Methanol, a lethal kind of alcohol that can cause blindness and acidosis in smaller doses.
- Ethylene oxide, an extremely flammable and cancer-cause compound that burns the skin and eyes and can depress the central nervous system.
Farmland Inc. alone released a million pounds of ammonia into the air in 1993, and Davol Inc. emitted almost 4,000 pounds of ethylene oxide. Farmland and FMC Corp. combined accounted for the entire half a million pounds of methanol released into the environment in 1993.
1993 — the latest report — was the seventh year that companies across the nation were required to report emissions of about 330 designated toxic chemicals under section 313 of the Emergency Planning and the Community Right-to-Know Act.
The law requires corporate emissions reports on materials that go into the air, into the water, landfills, underground injection, and chemicals that were transferred to other off-site locations. At the end of each year the EPA tabulates the totals for each county and compiles Toxic Release Inventories, or TRIs, for each company. Since the EPA is a government agency, the data from these reports is public information and can be obtained by writing the eight regional EPA offices. TRI data is also available yearly on CD-ROM at the government documents library in Malott Hall.
All of Kansas is in Region 7. The Region 7 EPA office is located in Kansas City, Kan.
The toxic emissions data from 1994 will not be available until this July.
Why the drop in emissions?
any people believe the trend toward
clearing up toxic emissions is a direct result of simply requiring companies to report pollution. In fact, many companies did not know how much of the toxic chemicals they were losing up the smokestack and down the drain until the law required them to count escaped chemicals.
Some of the chemicals the companies use are expensive to buy and use, and releasing less is cost effective.
When they found out what they were losing, the theory contends, they cleaned up their act.
"People were not aware, even the managers, of how much toxic chemicals were being released,"
See DIRTY, Page 5A
Yumi Chikamori / KANSAN
Gene Budig chats with Ed Meyen, executive vice chancellor, and Gary McEachen, an attorney from Kansas City, Kan., at the School of Education's national board dinner.
Budig gets honor in his return to KU
By Teresa Veazey Kansan staff writer
Underneath the blue cloth with a big gold bow stood a little boy.
The little boy, a statue of bronze, was holding a baseball glove in his hand, and the name on the glove was Budig.
The statue was unveiled Saturday night at the Lied Center as part of a tribute by the School of Education to Gene Budig, president of baseball's American League and former chancellor of the University of Kansas. Budig also was a professor in the School of Education.
Budig designated the $250,000 endowment for the School of Education.
"It was directed to the School of Education to establish the Gene A. Budig teaching professorship," said Karen Symms Gallagher, dean of the school. "He took the full $250,000 and designated it as a teaching professorship."
Under the program, professors would receive $12,500 for one year. Professors receiving the professorship would be full-time, tenured faculty who had been with the school at least five years and who had been recognized by students and peers as good instructors.
"I take enormous pride in my association with the School of Education," Budig said. "I was active in a number of student-related committees."
Budig, who was chancellor for 13 years, taught several classes in the school, including organization, administration and financing of higher education. Budig said he also lectured on journalism ethics for the School of Journalism.
"I always enjoyed the association with the students," Budig said. "They reminded me of the central purpose of the University."
Budig it said it was important that major administrators at KU teach so that they did not lose direct contact with the students. He was pleased that Robert Hemenway, who will become chancellor in June, would be teaching through the department of English.
"I think he was an excellent choice," Budig said. "I am anxious to be supportive of him and his endeavors here."
Several of Budig's friends and former colleagues were pleased to see him return to KU and accept the award.
"He was here for 13 years, and it feels a little hollow without him," said David Shulenburger, vice chancellor for academic affairs. "He became part of the persona of the University."
Del Shankel, chancellor of KU, said it felt great to have Budie back at the University.
"He was one of our great chancellors," Shankel said.
Defense reigns supreme
The Kansas football team's offense has been revamped, but Saturday's Blue-White game showcased an intense Jayhawk defense.
Rain doesn't shrivel Day on the Hill crowd
8,000 show up for annual concert
By Ian Ritter
Kansan staff writer
It wasn't quite like Woodstock, but it did rain, and it was pretty cold.
About 8,000 people were at the seventh annual Day on the Hill, said Jamie Plesser, live music coordinator for Student Union Activities. The event took place yesterday on the northwest lawn of Campanile Hill.
When the rain started to come down, mud clods started to fly in the mosh pit during headliner Matthew Sweet's set. The clods spurred a huge assortment of garbage that filled the air and even
tually made its way toward the state.
The band also faced rain at a Saturday gig in Omaha,Neb., Sweet said.
"Piece of shit," said Sweet to a fan who hit him in the back with a trash item.
"It got all our pedals wet, so stuff would start crapping out periodically," he said of the Omaha rain.
Sweet and the other three musicians in his band must not have been too upset, though. They entertained the crowd with a three-song encore of their guitar-driven, alternative pop.
Other bands that played Day on the Hill were Kansas City's Lou's Revenge, Lawrence's Bastard Squad and Kansas City's Tenderloin.
Emie Locke, lead singer and harmonica player for Tenderloin, said
"It's nice — a lot of slamming kids, a good time," he said.
At one point in Tenderloin's set, the crowd started pelting the band with quarters.
that he enjoyed the show and that it was relaxing.
"It was cold at first, and then 1
"I asked for a couple of quarters, and we got barrared like bullets," Locke said.
Locke — who said he asked for the quarters so that he could shoot them out of his large belly — said that a roadie with the band made $19 from the crowd's donation.
Locke, who often shakes his fat for crowds at Tenderloin shows, eventually stripped out of his satin, lime green clown body suit, down to a pair of black shorts.
See HILL, Page 8A
Ernie Locke,
lead singer for Kansas City
band Tenderloin,
dances on stage
during a set at
Day on the Hill.
Jarrett Lane/KANSAN