Coast Guard probably won't charge KU in oil spill
Staff Writer
The U.S. Coast Guard probably won't bring civil action against the University of Kansas for the May 6 oil spill into the Wakara River, a spokesman for the Coast Guard said Friday.
Dennis Schenck, a spokesman for the second district office of the Coast Guard in St. Louis, said it didn't appear that any civil penalty would be assessed by the Coast Guard because KU was a state institution and didn't fall into the owner-operator category of those under federal oil-pollution prevention regulations.
"You can't hold a state responsible," Schenck said.
Under Section 314 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, he said, "owner-operator" has the idea of a new system.
SECTION 311 PROHIBITS the discharge of oil and hazardous substances into U.S. waters and requires notification of any spill. It also provides funds for the federal government to clean up any spills if the guilty
party isn't known or refuses to pay. The maximum fine for violation of the law is $5,000.
Mike Davis, University Counsel, said the Coast
guard hadn't informed the University of Michigan's
decision that the vessel was in the water.
The oil spill occurred when a ruptured storage tank leaked at least 5,000 gallons of fuel oil into Lawrence's storm drainage system and then into the Wakura River. The oil flowed down the drainage ditch along Naismith Drive from KU's physical plant, where the tank is buried, and into the Wakura. Because the oil entered the Wakura, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Coast Guard became involved.
THE OIL FROM the ruptured tank leaked into a pumproom at the physical plant, University officials said, where it was then pumped into the drainage system. After the leak was discovered, the oil in the pumproom was removed and the tanks were pumped into a standby tank, and Buildings and Grounds crews began cleaning up the oil.
The spill brought one sanction against KU and the recommendation of two others by the EPA.
The EPA fined KU $1,000 for not having a "spill prevention control and countermeasures plan" on file, which provides information on what to do in case of an accidental spill. The plan is required for anyone storing underground more than 42,000 gallons of oil. A buildings and grounds spokesman estimated that KU had 300,000 gallons of oil stored underground at the time of the spill.
UNIVERSITY OFFICIALS HAVE said they thought the regulation covered only above-ground storage, but KU didn't contest the fine. The fine is to be paid out of the University's general operating budget.
The EPA also recommended that the Coast Guard bring civil action for the spill itself and that the U.S. attorney in Topeka be criminal action for failure to mount the spill to the EPA.
Carl Walter, chief of the permit and compliance branch of the EPA regional office in Kansas City, Mo.
said the Coast Guard's decision that KU wouldn't be held responsible for the spill was a matter of legal interpretation.
The EPA's lawyers could interpret it another way. Walter said, but the EPA has administrative jurisdiction only over the section of the law dealing with the spill prevention plan.
WALTER SAID THAT the EPA had turned over its file to the U.S. attorney and that the criminal action was still under consideration.
There are no strict rules on what length of time one has to report a spill, he said, but six to 12 hours is maximum. It was Monday morning before the EPA learned of the spill, which occurred Friday night.
Rodger Oroke, director of facilities operations for buildings and grounds, said the spill wasn't reported to the EPA because the people involved thought they had called all the people they needed to.
"Their main concern was to get started on the
cleamup. "Oroke said, 'They didn't deliberately try to keep it hidden.'"
ED JOHNSON, U.S. attorney in Topeka, said his office was still reviewing the file and hoped to make a decision on criminal action within two weeks. A cleanup operation brought problems for the buildings and ground crews.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
Following an EPA recommendation, workers burned off oil-contaminated grass along the Naishtm ditch in the 1400 block of West 27th street, one of the areas of heaviest damage.
However, the workers hadn't obtained a city burial permit before they started and Harold Bukit. KU grounds supervisor who was in charge of the crew, was issued a citation.
It isn't known whether the University plans to change Bitch's not guilty plea. Davis said he wouldn't comment because the case is still before the court.
KANSAN
Bilch pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor offense in an appearance June 6 in Lawrence Municipal Court. A July 21 trial date has been set.
RAIN
Monday, July 11, 1977
Vol.87,No.157
State energy plan considered
Food additives chemical keys?
See story page two
If the regional administrative office of the Federal Energy Administration (FEA) in Kansas City, Mo., approves, Kansas will have its first comprehensive energy conservation designed to cut the state's energy consumption by nearly seven per cent by 1980.
If the energy conservation plan is approved, the FEA will award up to $283,000.
The PEA required states to reduce energy consumption by five per cent by 1890 through mandated programs for lighting and air conditioner efficiency, purchasing government vehicles and promoting car pooling.
ROBERT ROBEL, ACTING DIRECTOR of the state energy office and the energy minister, approved the plan by mid July, implementation could begin as early as August. He speculated that approval and implementation would come no later than October.
"I have no concern about the plan's approval," Robel said. "The FEA contacted me yesterday and said all the background information and that there were no problems."
Legislation will be needed in some mandatory proposed areas of the plan, such as energy-efficient construction materials, he said, but agency rules and regulations will be sufficient to implement the program in other areas.
Robel said much of the plan would be educational.
"it's nothing new," he said. "It's all technology that has been proved."
THE PLANS HAVE BEEN well received by the agricultural sector, he said, and will also benefit those in residential areas and small and commercial businesses.
Among the plan's 12 proposals are new lighting efficiency standards, which will require legislation to make standards for the building and major renovation of state buildings.
The energy conservation plan also calls for implementation of a standard on insulation and air conditioner efficiency and methods of conserving energy and transportation, which includes preferential pool fees for pools and full-cost parking fees for state and local government employees who are not in car pools.
IN THE AGRICULTURAL AREA, the plan promotes the use of gear-up and throttle-down farm tractors and heavier ballast for farm tires to increase absorption to their power and the use of low-temperature dryers for grain drying.
The plan also includes:
Stricter energy efficiency standards for state vehicle buying.
Demonstration programs to promote
variety summer turn-off of gas furnace
gas heaters and to encourage all gas utilities
to promote projects in 550,000 gas-heated
homes.
Encouragement for Kansas' gas and electric utilities to develop an energy conservation loan program of up to $1,000 per residence to save energy.
Educate homeowners, business and industry to potential savings that can be realized by setting thermostats back five to ten minutes and turning off air conditioning overnight.
Explore expanded state government tax and other incentives to encourage homeowners and businesses to invest in energy conservation improvements.
Staff Writer
Older substandard urban housing can qualify for federal financing
By ROBERT GODFREY
At the end of World War II, American urbanites packed their bags and moved to suburban green suburbs, leaving behind all memories — crime-filled and congested urban centers.
Also left behind were their houses, which
were in turn occupied by people who either couldn't afford the move to suburbia or simply had their own reasons for not moving.
Now, three decades later, much of the pre-1940 urban housing has fallen into disrepair, some failing to meet even the
least-stringent of post-war housing safety and health codes.
Lawrence is no exception to the phenomenon. Much of the 19th-century housing within and around the central business district has structurally withstood the test of time, but has become substandard in the eyes housing authorities.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska—Trans-Alaska pipeline officials say they could resume pumping oil within days, but the plan to deliver 1.2 million barrels a day by the end of the year may have been dashed by an explosion that destroyed Pump Station No. 8
Monday
Alyses Pipeline Service Co. engineers and federal investigators probed the twisted remains of the pump station yesterday in an effort to pinpoint the
From our wire services
One worker died and five others were injured Friday when a stream of North Slope crude oil suddenly spurred out of a valve that apparently was left open by mistake in the pump station 41 miles southeast of Fairbanks. The oil ignited upon contact with one of the jet turbines that power the pipeline pumps.
Pipeline blast disrupts flow
SEOUL, South Korea—The toll of missing and dead climbed to 335 yesterday as rescue workers searched suburban Surail for survivors of one of South Korea's worst floods. Officials said the floods drove more than 77,000 persons from their homes and caused up to $20 million damage.
cause of the deadly blast and determine when the oil can safely begin to flow again.
South Korean flood toll climbs
HELISINKI, Finland—Nijjakers嵌入一种 aelifot jettner carrying 79 persons on a domestic flight in the Soviet Union to land to land at Helsinki, officials said.
newly developed housing areas south of the Han River, which runs through the South Korean capital.
The hijackers released an unspecified number of crew members, but kept about 70 persons hostage as negotiations began with Finnish authorities. officials said
Floods and landslides, triggered by about 17 inches of rain, struck during the nighttime hours late Friday and early Saturday. More rain is forecast for today. More rain is forecast for today.
The worst hit were the industrial and
2 hijackers seize Soviet jet
Kansas City 5, Oakland 4; Detroit 6,
Chicago 5, Illinois 10; Baltimore 6, New York 0; Minnesota 15, Seattle 0; Toronto 8, Pittsburgh 15; Jubilee 5-18,
Philadelphia 10-18; St. Louis 5-18; Chicago 3-4; Houston 6, Cincinnati 5; San Francisco 5-12, Atlanta 25.
Baseball
There was no blood on the hijackers' demands. A government spokesman said three cabinet ministers and Soviet officials Vladimir Stepawov were at the airport.
The plane was identified as a 'U134 twin-engine jet on a 175-mile flight from Petrozavadsk to Leningrad.
The Finnish news agency STT said seven of the hostages were children.
The temperature will climb to the low 98 under partly cloudy skies today, with a chance of thunderstorms in the afar. The temperatures will dip into the upper 60s tonight.
Weather
However, low-interest federal government loans are increasingly being made available to homeowners desiring to bring their homes into compliance with federal, state and local housing codes.
The loans are administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under section 312 of the Housing Act of 1964.
Homeowners can also apply some of the funds toward refinancing existing property debt payments if the monthly interest and principal payments on both the existing debt and rehabilitation loan add up to more than a per cent of the applicant's monthly income.
The 312 chairs can provide a maximum of $17,400 at three per cent interest for up to 20 years for rehabilitation of houses. They are available to certain neighborhoods through the Lawrence Community Development Department (CD).
According to Lynn Goodell, CD director, the loans are intended to provide low- to medium-income families with the ability to medium-housing homes out of those deemed substandard.
To be eligible for a 312 loan, an applicant must own or be making payments on a house within a designated CD target area. There also be in violation of local housing codes.
Goodell, who became CD director two months ago, is particularly concerned with people living in poor quality housing who are the costs of home rehabilitation.
To be designated as a target area, a neighborhood group must draw up a charter with bylaws for approval by the city commission.
However, he said Friday that there were no income restrictions on persons applying for the program.
The five target areas are north, east and far east Lawrence, Oread and Pinckney.
After a person makes an application for a loan, Goodell sends an inspector to the house, where a list of all housing code violations is made.
Goodell said the inspector might suggest general improvements that could be made, such as room additions, installation of dishwashers and/or central air conditioning, which can improve
See FINANCING page two
Fiddling around is fun on a Sunday
By RICK ALM Staff Writer
Staff Writer
"I was surprised I won," Dishinger said, adding that he felt he didn't play his best because he was a little nervous.
Dishinger, who was second last year, beat five other fiddlers with “Marmaduke's Hornpipe,” “Kentucky Waltz” and “Clarinet Polka,” three fiddle tunes he said he liked and played well.
Rik Dishinger, assistant professor of art, won the futun-
division at the second annual Douglas County Fiddin' and
Guilds of Carpenters competition.
More than 300 people, many stretched out in the sun on the grass in front of the gareboe, listened as 22 entries, all from the 1958 exhibition.
A fiddler since 1970, Dishinger described his fiddling style as old-time short-bow, which employs short, choppy bow stroke. The most experienced fiddler competing was 53-year-old Loree Hutch of Leinster who takes the best.
Leroy Hatch of Lecompton, who has been playing 39 years
Hatched said there were no 90-day wonders in fiddling.
Hatch said fiddling and violin playing were different, even though they used the same instrument.
"A fiddler plays his music the way he likes it," he said. "A violinist prints notes out of a book."
Hatch said he started playing as a 14-year-old violinist, but soon became a fiddler.
"It takes seven to eight years to learn how to pull the bow across the strings," he said.
The youngest participant, 13-year-old Pierce Nunley said he had been studying violin for a year and a half.
"I do a lot of classical stuff," he said, "but the bluegrass I do is just for fun. The audience isn't as critical."
Nunley agreed with Hatch that fiddling takes a long time to perfect.
"For me to be really good," he said, "it will take another five or six years."
Staff photos by MARIANNE MAURIN
Recognition procedure changes delayed
No action will be taken concerning the improvement of the registration and recognition procedures for student registrars. Students must meet in the f.i.l. StudEx decided vexterian.
StudEx voted to wait to receive recommendations from the other student senators to help them decide what recommendation they want. Amber, vice chancellor for student affairs
The vice chancellor for student affairs now determines alone which organizations receive recognitions. An organization must be recognized to receive student funds.
StudEx formed a special committee in the spring to study the problem of recognition of student organizations. The committee recommended that a recognition committee should comprise three StudEx members and the vice chancellor for student affairs.
The proposed committee would review student organizations' requests for recognition. The vice chancellor would have the power to select which organizations would be reevaluated.
Some StudEx members objected to the proposed recognition committee because
Present guidelines state that an organization won't be funded if it is substantially oriented toward support for a particular religious institution's activities or beliefs, or for a political party's activities or programs.
the vice chancellor could veto an organization's request for recognition.
Steve Leben, student body president,
recommended that the entire recognition
procedure be abandoned. He also suggested
that a separate registration for
organizations only be required to register.
Leben said that banning recognition would allow groups to come to the Senate for funds without worrying about being vetoed by the administration.
The administration could still veto funds approved by the Senate, however, if the administration thought an organization did not meet University guidelines, Leben said.