VOL.100,NO.151
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANBAR
(USPS 650-640)
WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 1990
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
NEWS:864-4810
Regents threatened with lawsuit
Jean Martin, with her granddaughters Sarah Martin and Jeeesta Martin, tells of her plans to sue.
Eudora woman wants cleanup of toxic waste
By Deron Graul
Kenan staff writer
Kansan staff writer
A rural Johnson County woman notified the Kansas Board of Regents on Friday that she intended to take legal action against the Regents to require the cleanup of a 26-year-old landfill.
landon
Jean Martin, Eudora, said she would file suit against the Regents foist and present violations of the federal environmental laws. She is asking the Regents to clean up a toxic waste site once used by the University of Kansas that is located about 250 vards from her home.
52 years
Sites: Carter, KU environmental health and safety officer, said that from 1964 to 1982, the site, which is adjacent to the Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant near DeSoTa, was used for the disposal of radioactive and chemical wastes from KU research laboratories.
Research moderate. Catered the first burial of waste at the Sunflower landfill occurred in November 1864.
All applicable state and federal regulations in effect at that time were followed, according to University Relations.
sity relations.
According to a site plan, the wastes, which included paper, resins and the carcasses of experimental ponies and dogs, were buried in more than 200 trenches on the site.
The two-foot wide, eight-foot deep trenches are up to 100 feet long, according to the site plan. The trenches were filled about halfway with waste material and then covered with dirt. The waste was disposed of in paper cartons, bottles, vials, plastic bags and metal drums.
dioxane is used in radioactive experiments, although it is not radioactive itself. The Kansas acceptable limit for dioxane is 70 parts to each billion water of water.
According to an August 1988 meme from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, dioxane was found in the groundwater on the site at concentrations exceeding 8,000 times the acceptable limit. Water taken from the stream, which crosses the Martin property, indicated concentrations 100 times greater than the acceptable limit.
According to a report issued by the department, the Martin's well tested positive for dioxane twice between 1982 and 1988. Nine other tests during that period showed no dioxane. The department attributed the positive tests to laboratory errors.
in 1982, Jean Martin's husband,
Allen Martin, died of a rare lung
disease. She said doctors told her the
landfill could have been a contributing factor.
ing tactico'
In September 1988, Jean Martin cuired a heart attack caused by tumors on her adrenal glands. She has had her adrenal glands removed and now is dependent on daily doses of steroids to stay alive.
Martin said her condition was rare and she thought that the landfill was related.
refuted.
She is not seeking damages but only wants to see the site cleaned up, she said.
suné said:
Stanley Koplik, executive director of the Regents, said the Regents were waiting on a final engineering report due in August or September before deciding what action to take.
declining what he believed Koplik said he was not prepared to comment on Martin's allegations.
"We won't ignore the problem," he said. "We want to do what's right, though."
The site has been monitored since 1977.
1977
A 1977 research project conducted by a former KU graduate student, R. Emory Larimore, indicated that radioactive material was leaking from the burial trenches into the surrounding soil and toward the Martin property.
In 1978, the Kansas Geological Survey drilled test wells to determine the feasibility of expanding part of the disposal area, Martin said. Workers drilling about ten feet from the trenches noticed foul odors strong enough to stop work on the wells.
she said in 1982 the geological survey drilled another set of test wells and workers again noticed strong odors. At the time, concerns were raised that the hazardous wastes might be contaminating the landfill into a stream that crosses the landfill site and the Martin farm.
The stream flows into Captain Creek, which flows into the Kansas River about three miles north of the site.
site. In 1984, the geological survey established 21 groundwater monitoring wells and 14 surface-water sampling stations along the stream, Martin said.
fu salte is said water samples from the walls indicated that organic solvents, including the carcinogenic dioxane, were seeping out of the trenches.
According to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, concentrations of dioxane that exceeded acceptable limits also were detected in the stream and the surface water.
In 1989, another KU graduate student, Richard J. Newill, concluded in his master's thesis that nearby squirrels were contaminated by hazardous wastes.
artworks. Kopik said the Regents were considering options for dealing with the site, ranging from taking no action to diverting and treating the groundwater.
contain toxic organic compounds, downstream from the site. Will access region to the site.
A preliminary engineering report prepared by Black & Wearaste Waste Science and Technology Corp. of Overland Park suggested five alternatives for the Regents to consider: To do nothing to the site. The report says "there are no significant risks associated with exposure to radioactive material at the site" although there are risks associated with consuming water, which may
To contour access to the site.
To cover the site with clay to minimize water seepage into the trenches and to build a wall around the site to minimize contaminant leakage.
- To cap the site and to provide a downdragnet drain to capture and treat the groundwater.
- To add a drain above the site to keep water from flowing through the landfill.
KU now ships its waste products to a licensed disposal site in Washington.
Black & Veatach estimated that costs for the cleanup could be as high as $3.6 million, depending on which option is implemented.
AIDS on increase in women
The Associated Press
CHICAGO — AIDS has become the leading killer of young Black women in New York state and New Jersey, and probably will be the fifth leading cause of death among all U.S. women of childbearing age by next year, scientists say.
Because women who have the virus are the major source of infection for infants, the trends portend disastrous consequences. Many researchers say researchers at the federal Centers for Disease Control.
In monetary terms alone, babies infected with the AIDS virus cost the taxpayer-funded Medicaid system $18,000 to $42,000 a year, they noted.
Among women ages 15 to 44, deaths from AIDS soared from 18 in 1900 to 66 in 2000. The year for which statistics are available, the researchers said.
The death rate quadrupled between 1985 and 1988, when AIDS deaths represented 3 percent of all mortality for women in that age group, the researchers said.
Among Black women ages 15 to 44, AIDS was the leading cause of death in New York and New Jersey and an author Susan Y. Chu, 8CD epidemiologist.
"That to me is remarkable, because it exceeds the rates of heart disease and cancer, as well as accidents," she said.
Three-quarters of women with AIDS-virus infections get them from using intravenous drugs or having sex with intravenous drug users, Chu said. Since it typically takes 10 years after infection for AIDS to develop, current statistics represent infections from years ago, she said.
In 1989, there were 2,925 new cases of AIDS among women of reproductive age, the researchers said.
said.
Howard Minkoff, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn, called the findings overwhelming, worrisome and troubling.
bing.
Even more troubling, he said in a telephone interview yesterday, is the attitude of white, middle-class Americans whose reaction to such reports is, "It's still not us."
Gorbachev re-elected as leader
The Associated Press
MOSCOW — Mikhail S. Gorbachev handily won re-election yesterday as leader of the Communist Party, as delegates who had assailed his policies concluded their party could not survive without him.
loting.
Delegates at the 28th congress of the Soviet Communist Party voted
Although opposition appeared to melt away as the delegates considered electing a new general secretary, a sizable ant-Gorbachev sentiment was evident in the bailoting.
3,411 to 1,182 to keep Gorbachev as general secretary. His opponent, Teimuraz Avallain, a Siberian party leader, received 501 votes to 4,028 against. The vote was held on the eighth day of the congress.
Gorbachen nodded silently at the results, but did not smile as the delegates responded to his victory with loud applause.
with loud applause.
In a brief acceptance speech, Gorbachev expressed gratitude for enormous support and trust the
under congress rules, delegates are required to take a separate vote on each candidate.
support. But he added that he would take into account the criticism leveled against him and would reach "the most serious, far-reaching conclusions."
congress had placas
"I thank you for this," he said.
"You're right. I hear my
missions, I take my election as
support for my positions."
congress had placed in him.
The congress, which many expected could pose a challenge to Gorbachev, ended in triumph for him. Delegates approved Gorbachev's proposal to reorganize and expand the party Politburo.
The top party job carries no fixed term of office. But the meeting changed party rules to require that the general secretary be elected by a congress, which traditionally meets every four or five years, rather than by the Central Committee, which meets several times a year. The change will make it harder for opponents to oust Gorbache as party leader, a host he has held since 1985.
In March, Gorbachev was elected to a five-year term as president with authority newly strengthened at his initiative.
Summit nations hail fall of Iron Curtain
HOUSTON — Western leaders gave Mikhail Gorbachev a warm endorsement yesterday and pledged to help in practical ways those countries that chained freedom. The seven industrial powers no longer coordinated aid for the embattled Soviet economy, but loneless sanctions against China.
eSbiddy gave goodbye to the Iron Curtain separating Eastern and Western Europe, they said they were "determined to seize all opportunities to a achieve a Europe whole and free."
The Associated Press
In a political statement at the half-way point of their 16th annual economic summit, the seven Western leaders also acknowledged recent improvements in Beijing by slightly easing restrictions on assistance.
town of Rochester, looking ahead to today's wraup communique, there were hints of compromise on environmental disputes and trade. President George Bush was trying to persuade his partners to phase out agricultural subsidies to avert a breakdown in
global trade talks.
Japanese protest. In a separate political statement, the leaders took over the placement of repressive regimes in Central and Eastern Europe by governments freely chosen by their peoples."
"America protects its agriculture forcibly." British foreign secretary Douglas Hurd said. "So does Europe, though to a lesser extent ... the Japanese protect theirs perhaps most of all."
Referring to the economically troubled, reform-minded government in Moscow, the leaders said, "We commit ourselves to working with the Soviet Union to assist its efforts to create an open society, a pluralistic democracy and a market-oriented economy."
Secretary of State James A. Baker III told reporters he hoped a positive response could be fashioned for Gorincheva's plea for Western aid from the seven summit states: Japan, France, West Germany, Italy, Britain, Canada and the United States.
He said that all the countries around the table wanted Gorbachev's economic reconstruction to succeed, adding, "I would hope that there would be a consensus coming out of this summit . . . that technical assistance to the Soviet Union is warranted even under the circumstances that exist today."
The United States, Britain and Japan showed no sign of dropping their opposition to cash aid, but went along with a statement allowing each country to go its own way. West Germany and France failed to win a coordinated $1 billion aid package but West Germany has pledged $3.1 billion in loans.
"Each of us stands ready to help in practical ways these countries that choose freedom, through the provision of constitutional, legal and economic know-how and through economic assistance, as appropriate," the leaders said in compromise language.
FacEx examines Willner review, may alter policy
By Melissa Bulgren
Kansan staff writer
The Faculty Executive Committee yesterday decided to form a committee to examine recommendations by the KU chapter of the American Association of University Professors that could change KU's dismissal procedures for faculty.
protects the AAUP reviewed last year's dismal proceedings against Dorothy Willner, anthropology professor, in making its recommendations.
so, in making Wilmer was the first tenured KU faculty member to be dismissed in the University's 124-year history. She filed an appeal with the Board of Regents April 5. The Regents may discuss the appeal at their next meeting, Sept. 20.
"We found out there are some flaws and inconsistencies in the dismissal procedure," Johnson said.
A memo to William Scott, presiding officer of University Council, from E.P. Johnson, president of the KU AAUP, said the association's recommendations addressed issues of academic freedom and due process raised in the Wilmer dismissal.
Frances Ingemann, chairman of FacEx and the Senate Executive
milhill previews recommended clarifications and additions to the Faculty Handbook to establish firmer guidelines for faculty dismissals.
The changes AAUP recommended in KU dismissal procedures included;
The regulations on dismissal procedures should make clear that an accumulation of minor charges should not be considered equivalent to a serious violation.
Committee, said yesterday that the committee would review the recommendations and pass them on to other University governance committees for further examination.
Because parties may disagree on the makeup of a mediation board, alternative means of selecting mediators should be available.
■ Written evidence and telephone conversations should be admissable as evidence only if an opportunity is given to rebut such evidence
given to rescue such cases.
Changes should be made in the role of legal advisers. When legal counsel directs the hearing in a legalist, they committee member and themselves functioning as non-experts in a legal climate, according to the review. Dismissal committee members should question witnesses first and legal counsel should be limited to the role of advisers. Legal counsel should question witnesses only after the committee's investigation of each witness is complete.