daily Emerald
Vol. 82, No. 135
Eugene, Oregon 97403
Friday, April 17, 1981
Power surge
sparks fire
By GABRIEL BOEHMER
Of the Emerald
A fallen EWEB power line caused about a
20-minute campus-wide blackout that damaged
some University equipment Thursday afternoon.
According to an EWEB representative, the
"very old line" burned off its connection and fell
onto a sawdust pile behind the University’s phy
sical plant.
The subsequent loss of power caused a
ventilation motor in Gerlinger Annex to overheat,
and damaged the data system in the computer
center.
The smoldering motor filled Gerlinger Annex
with smoke, and brought five Eugene Fire
Department units to the scene. Several hundred
dollars damage was done to the motor, according
to physical plant director Harold Babcock.
In the computer center, three days' registra
tion data was lost and teletype machines were
damaged by the power loss, according to com
puting director Arthur Gloster. He estimated
damage at $400.
The computing center already was three days
behind its work load and now must work through
the weekend to catch up by Monday.
“It (the power shutdown) may have done
some electrical damage, but that may not surface
for two or three days," Gloster said.
The computing center suffered similar power
outages last fall and summer, Gloster said.
The power shutdown also caused electrical
circuits to overload and smoulder in the basement
of Straub Hall. None of the computers in the
adjacent psychology laboratory were affected,
according to a maintenance engineer.
Power was shutdown from about 1:14 p.m. to
1:35 p.m. while a crew repaired the severed power
line, according an EWEB representative. The
worn connection probably was not detected in
any of EWEB’s periodic line checks because of
the sometimes low power level on the line.
Physical plant generators provided emer
gency electricity while the power line was being
repaired.
A Eugene Fire Department repesentative said
engines responded to the one-alarm fire after
receiving a call from the Eugene Police Depart
ment. Firefighters cleared the smoke from Ger
linger Annex in about an hour with large electric
fans. No injuries were reported.
— * \
Photo by Erich Boekelheide
A helmeted Eugene firefighter uses a fan to clear smoke from
Gerlinger Annex.
Wilkins wins landslide in primary
By PAUL TELLES
Of the Emerald
ASUO vice president Rich Wilkins
won an overwhelming victory in this
week’s ASUO presidential election.
Wilkins garnered 1,622 votes, or
72.5 percent of the total. Second-run
ner Donovan Guy captured 288; third
runner Bruce Mills polled 184 and
Thomas Brannon took home 142
votes.
Wilkins said the main projects of his
administration would be trying to
make the athletic department more
accountable to student government
for its incidental fees allocations,
trimming the EMU budget and push
ing for a new system of childcare
funding
The final tally, released late Thurs
day night, makes next week's
scheduled general elections un
necessary. Wilkins needed only to poll
50 percent of the vote to win on the
first ballot.
In the Incidental Fee Committee
election, Karsten Rasmussen was top
vote-getter with 1,396 votes. Pam
Jordan finished second with 1,378.
Cathi Bulone, Xavier Romano, Dave
Gibson, Steven Baldwin and Kathleen
“Katcha" Phinney also were elected
to IFC seats, each polling more than
1,200 votes.
Former IFC chairer Alan Contreras
finised eighth with 984 votes, and Ken
Packman finished ninth with 731 Fin
ishing behind them were Jon Bern
stein and John Miche.
However, an election complaint
filed by Contreras could cause a
shake-up in the IFC results. Contreras
has charged that Jordan wasn’t a
valid candidate after she withdrew her
election application last week. Jordan
later withdrew her withdrawal
In other ASUO election business,
four students were elected to the EMU
Board. Bob Needham finished first
with 1,406 votes, followed closely by
Chris Little with 1,405 votes. Michael
Lehman and George Glass also won
board seats polling 1,358 and 1,258
votes respectively.
Tom Pankey finished a third with
672 votes.
Six Student University Affairs Board
representatives also were elected
during the two-day balloting. Cheryl
Steinhaus defeated David Kosse in
the journalism race, polling 170 votes
to Kosse’s 42. Keith Johnson won the
business and economics seat, polling
326 votes to Tamae Moriyasu’s 261.
In uncontested SUAB races, Kevin
Conover won the biology and
chemistry seat; Pual Rudinsky won
the undeclared major seat; Geoffrey
Nichols won the computer science
seat; and SUAB incumbent Susan
Browning was elected to a second
term in the music seat
Spray bill
fight looms
By LESLIE FARRIS
Of the Emerald
Rep. Jim Weaver, D-Ore., heard testimony
from about 30 people Thursday on his proposed
bill limiting the use of herbicides by federal forest
agencies.
The bill, which Weaver introduced in Con
gress last week, would require the U S. Forest
Service and the Bureau of Land Management to
give preference to vegetation control methods
not requiring the aerial spraying of herbicides
whenever the costs of the alternatives are similar
to or less than the costs of spraying.
Weaver said his bill would ‘‘eliminate the
unnecessary use of herbicides on federal forest
lands and create hundreds of new jobs in vege
tation management.
“If it were up to me, I would halt all aerial
spraying of herbicides because I have never been
convinced of their effectiveness in promoting the
growth of our Douglas Fir over the long term,’’ he
said. “There are alternatives to these sprays
available that not only can get the job done but
will employ hundreds of Oregonians who are now
out of work.”
In addition to denying people jobs, Weaver
said the use of herbicides is harmful to human
health.
Weaver listened to testimony about safety
tests conducted by the Industrial Biotest Labora
tories that were found to be invalid. The Environ
mental Protection Agency relied on these tests to
register many of the herbicides used in Northwest
forests. The EPA is reviewing registration of those
chemicals, but none has been cancelled to date
Robert Poss, representing the EPA at the
hearing, said the agency administrator cancels
chemicals when the risks outweigh the benefits.
"This goes to the heart of all our questioning
about the validity of these tests," Weaver said. "If
we find one major laboratory falsifying testing, it
makes one wonder if the whole system is valid."
Dr. Joseph Morgan, a physician practicing
for 15 years in Coos Bay, said he became con
cerned about the use of herbicides when he and
his colleagues began noticing illnesses in many of
their patients that were coincidental with the
patients’ exposure to herbicides. He said he’s
treated 50 to 60 such patients over the past five
years for headaches, respiratory and gastroin
testinal disturbances, flu-like symptoms, abnor
mal urinal bleeding and other illnesses.
But he said it’s difficult to prove a direct
cause-effect relationship between herbicides and
illnesses because herbicides can’t always readily
be detected in body tissues, blood or urine
"There’s a tendency to dismiss anything as
anecdotal that hasn’t been proven scientifically, ’’
Morgan said.
"I believe the burden of proof should be on
those who want to use the chemicals. It’s morally
unjustifiable to continue their use while waiting
for evidence of their effects.”
Weaver’s bill would require the federal agen
cies to review each site scheduled for spray and
certify that herbicide application would not cause
short or long-term human health hazards. A
provision would provide time for objectors to
appeal spray plans before the herbicide is
sprayed
Michael Newton, a forest sciences professor
at Oregon State University, said studies show a
much higher medical risk among those clearing
brush manually with power saws than those
applying herbicides. And manually treated sites
suffer greater erosion than chemically treated
sites, he said
Rich Koven of the Northwest Forest Worker
Association, which comprises about 800 refores
tation workers, said in a study of 2,838 working
days, just nine workers clearing brush manually
suffered minor injuries.