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s5“ OFF ANYTHING
with value of
$29 or more
IN THE STORE
Regular
or sale
Price
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DR. MARTENS
VANS
CONVERSE
57 W Bfoodway
and 957 Willamette
Downtown Mail
POSTERS I
VISION I
LA GEAR ■
THE ADVOCATE'S
"WOMAN OF THE YEAR"
DONNA REDWING
Donna speaks about being a
committed lesbian activist,
what motivates her, the recent
Measure 9 campaign and
being executive director of LCP
TONIGHT!
Oil spill exaggerated, says Exxon
ATLANTA (API — Exxon
Corp claimed Wednesday that
predictions of long-term dam
age from the Valdez oil spill
ore being grossly exaggerated
because of laboratory errors
and a failure to recognize outer sources oi on m
Alaska'* Print* William .Sound
The government said ihe oil giant's claims are
"viable" and that it will racheck the data.
"Some of what they say may very well la- true."
said Dave Kennedy of the Seattle office of the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
which handled the government s studies of the spill.
"But I'm not sure that in the long run it really
changes all that much. The fac t remains they still
spilled 11 million gallons of oil that had a tremen
dous impact at the time ”
The ttiHii tanker accident killed unknown num
bers of wildlife, including possibly a third of the
Sound's sea otter population. Some scientists say
the Sound needs decades to recover and that some
wildlife mav still be poisoned there
Exxon didn’t dispute the spill's immediate
impact But Wednesday the company released data
hacking its claims that those long-term predictions
are exaggerated
"We don't want to belittle it." said Kxxon sci
entist Dr Hans O. lahns. "But we re all going to
be living with oil production, and it doesn’t serve
anybody well to have an exaggerated perception of
what an oil spill can do."
Kxxon will present 25 studies at a science con
ference in Atlanta in two weeks, where other sci
entists will del late the findings.
An overview of the tests shows Exxon used chem
ic ill fingerprinting to distinguish the Valdez crude
from other hydrocarbons in the Sound.
Kxxon contends scientists who didn't use that
technique labeled even naturally occurring hydro
carbons as Valdez oil. Exxon found oil from nat
ural seeps upstream and from diesel fuel used by
•The fact remains they still
spilled 11 million gallons of oil
that had a tremendous impact
at the time
— Dave Kennedy,
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration
boats in the Sound that it contended was misiden
tified
Valdez crude was present after the spill but
decreased over time, Jahns said.
Exxon also claimed high levels of laboratory c om
lamination misled scientists.
The government found flaws in its database as
early as 1990. said Bruce Wright of [uneau. pro
ject manager for NOAA's oil spill assessment office.
It noticed a problem when samples from the same
site showed widely varying amounts of oil and
when oil was reported in sites where no contami
nation was expected.
"There was an extraneous source of oil in the
samples," Wright said. "I am not sure how this
could have happened."
But suspect data was discarded, he added
And Bob Spies, a California scientist who is advis
ing Alaskan officials about spending the $900 mil
lion Exxon paid for restoration, said other studies
that reached the same conclusions should offset
doubt about NOAA's database.
Projections on otter recovery, for example, were
based on tracking the survivors. "Whether or not
a blood sample was tainted in the lab is a very small
part of that." he said.
Texas A*M University, which did most of the
lab testing for NOAA. already checked its results
and found no contamination, said chief chemist
Mahlon C. Kennicutt II.
SPRING SPECIALS
TfiM i
TIERED SKIRTS
Sale 39.99
Orig. 60.00-68.00
Sweeping, easy fitting
elastic waist skirts m a
selection of mixed prints.
Cotton or rayon
Sizes S.M.L.
BROOMSTICK
SKIRTS
19.99
Sale
Orig. 30.00
Elastic waist crinkled
cotton skirts in colortul
floral or ethnic pnnts.
Si^es S.M.L.
I
TANK TOPS
2 for 13.00
or
6.99
ea.
Orig. 10.00 ea.
Cotton blend tank tops m 16
cotofs. Sizes S.M.L.
rj,
JTCREWNECK
* OR CAP
SLEEVE TEES
2 for 18.00
or 9.99 ea.
Orig. 15.00 ea.
. One pocket crewneck
\ tee or cap sleeve
\ styte with button
J closure. Available in
/ 12 fashion colors.
Cotton blend.
Sizes S.M.L
CAMPUS
PH.485-1581
Parents sue
after E. coli
infects child
SEATTLE (AP) — The parents
of a 7-year-old girl stricken in Jan
uary’s food-poisoning outbreak
have Tiled a federal lawsuit
against the Jack in the Box restau
rant chain.
The lawsuit was Bled in U S
District Court on Tuesday by the
parents of Lindsey Hicks of
Spanaway. Lindsey was hospi
talized more than three weeks
after eating a Jack in the Box
hamburger Jan. 7. said Karen Bal
luff. the attorney representing the
family.
The suit seeks unspecified
damages from Jack in the Box,
which is owned by San Diego
based Foodmaker Inc., and Food
maker's formur meat supplier,
The Vons Cos.
Two toddlers died and hun
dreds of Washington residents
fell ill in January and February
in an outbreak of E. coli Ol57:H7
bacterium linked to undercooked
and contaminated hamburgers at
Jack in the Box restaurants A
third death from E. coli also
occurred in that time, but has not
been positively linked to Jack in
the Box.
More than a dozen lawsuits
have been filed in Washington
against Jack in the Box and Food
maker. Jack in the Box has
offered to pay the medical costs
of those who became sick from
tainted hamburger.
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