Church lends support to Democrats
"Let's put Oregon in the right column from
the White House to the court house," said Frank
Church, Democratic U.S. senator from Idaho
Wednesday.
Addressing a crowd of Oregon and Lane
V.
County candidates and supporters of the Demo
cratic party at the Eugene Hotel, Church spoke
out in support of incumbent 4th District Con
gressman Jim Weaver and Democrats in gen
eral.
J
Contamination problems seen
Editor's note: This is the second in
a three-part series of articles deal
ing with the Hanford nuclear
energy plant.
By MICHAEL THOMPSON
For the Emerald
In the early days of the Hanford
operation, liquid atomic wastes
were commonly poured into settl
ing basins along the Columbia
River. Here excess moisture ev
aporated, concentrating the
wastes for easier handling.
Swallows found the contami
nated mud ideal for nest construc
tion. Humans became aware of
this situation in 1956 when nests
on the sides of occupied buildings
turned out to be radioactive.
Settling ponds had another
problem that worried some scien
tists. As the radioactive mud dried
some of it turned to dust. Wind
picked up the dust, together with
its burden of radionuclides, and
away it went. Where did it go?
In 1970 during an attempt to
measure the liquid level in a stron
tium storage tank, there was an
accidental release of radioactive
waste into an open 25-acre pond.
Water samples from the pond
showed a strontium concentration
level exceeding AEC standards
for radiation release.
A contaminated ditch was
screened and noise guns used to
scare off waterfowl. In spite of
these efforts passing ducks and
coots landed on the pond and be
came contaminated.
Hanford officials estimated that
one pound of the radioactive
waterfowl would give a person
one per cent of the maximum
permissible intake of stron
tium-90, but that in some birds the
amount of radioactivity from other
isotopes was considerably higher.
Where did the ducks go? Which
hunter included them in his bag
limit?
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
maps of the Pacific flyway migra
tion routes indicate that ducks
heading south down the Hanford
stretch of the Columbia River turn
west at the Oregon line, turning
south again into the Willamette
Valley or down the east side of the
Cascades towards the Klamath
Basin. Some will stop there for the
winter. Others continue on into
California and Mexico.
Sometimes plants instead of
animals pick up radioactive
wastes and introduce them into
the biological web. Russian thistle
or tumbleweed, for example, very
prolific among the weeds on the
Hanford Reservation, has been
found growing in contaminated
soil below leaking strontium-90
waste pipes, healthy and appar
ently unaffected by a high con
centration of radioactive strontium
in its tissues.
in 1974 Hanford researchers
discovered that plutonium is
picked up from the soil by plant
roots with surprising efficiency.
Using barley, Dr. Raymond R.
Wildung and Thomas R. Garland
(Continued on Page 2)
dailv
\J
emerald
An Independent Aewspa^er^
Vol. 78, No. 25 Eugene, Oregon 97403 Thursday, October 80^976
Oregon
Input results in
program proposal
An alternative minority program
proposal emphasizing student
input will be presented tonight at
the last of three public hearings on
the University’s minority prog
rams.
The hearing was scheduled by
Frances Scott, chairer of the
Planning Committee on Minority
and Disadvantaged Students.
The committee was appointed last
spring by University Pres. William
Boyd to review the Academic Op
portunity Program (AOP) and
make recommendations for a new
one.
Barbara Koser, who has been
involved in campus minority prog
rams in the past, will present the
proposal at the hearing. The plan
was devised by Denny DeGross,
former director of the Native
American Center on campus and
has been enlarged over the sum
mer by Koser with the help of
community members, faculty and
students.
“The initial idea developed by
group consensus," says Koser.
She says she has received en
dorsements for the program from
University faculty, ASUO officials
and other community members.
The University's minority prog
rams have been the center of con
troversy for the past several
years. The minority program
operating this fail is an interum
program developed last spring
and offers limited enrollment clas
ses to students with grade point
averages that fall in the 1.7 to 2.0
range. The program is adminis
tered through the College of Lib
eral Arts, but past minority prog
rams have used socio-economic
characteristics as a criteria for
eligibility and gave been handled
through the Office of Student Ser
vices,
The hearing is scheduled to
begin at 7 p.m. in the EMU. Stu
dents with suggestions or criti
cisms may attend the hearing or
contact committee members per
sonally. Committee members in
clude Frances Scott, committee
chairer and director of the geron
tology center; Executive Dean
John Lallas, AOP Dean Willetta
Wilson, professors Theresa Rip
ley, Joel McClure and Ed Col
eman; School District 4-j rep
resentative George Russell, and
students Roberta Nasu, Raul
Mecha, Molly Brady and Gary
Kim.
Persons having questions
about the hearing may contact
Scott at ext. 4207.
Bridge obtains funds
Thanks to local citizen concern
and a bit of political muscle,
Eugene will receive $288,000
from the Federal Highway Ad
ministration (FHA) to build a bicy
cle and pedestrian bridge across
the Willamette River in the Valley
River area.
City officials received word of
the funding Wednesday, which is
available through the $6 million
Bikeway Demonstration Act.
The bridge, which will be ap
proximately 175 feet long and cost
more than $360,000, will cross the
river in the Polk Street area near
Railroad Boulevard. City funds will
cover 20 per cent of the cost of the
project.
In September, the chances for
federal funding of the project were
considered dim. The bridge, one
of ten bikeway proposals in the
northwestern U.S. considered by
the FHA’s Seattle office, was
rated only fifth in priority for the
region,
However, on Oct. 1 the project
received the #1 rating. This was
due largely to the intervention of
Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore., ac
cording to the Eugene Bicycle
Committee. Packwood, author of
the bikeway demonstration legis
lation. has been a strong suppor
ter of the bridge since he toured
Eugene's bikeways last summer.
Local citizens, led by the bicycle
committee and Mayor Les Ander
son, also were involved in lobby
ing efforts for the bridge.
Diane Bishop, Eugene's bicycle
coordinator, said Wednesday she
is pleased the bridge will receive
federal funding. The bridge is
necessary to link Eugene’s de
veloping bike path systems on the
city’s north and south sides, she
said.
Bishop noted that without the
bridge, cyclists have great diffi
culty crossing the Willamette
River. Cyclists crossing the river in
west Eugene are forced to use the
hazardous Washington-Jefferson
freeway, and the only pedestrian
bridge is in the Autzen Stadium
area.
Construction on the project will
probably begin within a year,
Bishop said.