Page 8--Sunday, January 28, 1979-The Michigan Daily
1I
SPECIA L SESSION ON MONDA Y
Council wages war on waste
Hijacker and FBI
negotiate at Kennedy
By JEFFREY WOLFF
To some people, "Solid waste
disposal" is merely a source of jokes,
but such humor is not shared by those
city officials who must aface the reality
that Ann Arbor is quickly running out of
space for its garbage.
Debate over this situation will enter
its newest phase tomorrow night when
City Council will spend a special
working session discussing waste
,disposal strategies for the city.
THE DEBATE will deal with the
future of Ann Arbor's current 190-acre
landfill on Platt and Ellsworth roads.
This landfill currently receives 99,000
tons of garbage a year, and a 4 per cent
annual increase is projected.
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However, quite a bit of the solid waste
comes from'outside of Ann Arbor, and
even 1the director of the Department of
Solid Waste (SWD), Ulysses Ford, has
said he does not know just how much.
He estimates the amount to be about 35
per cent.
This confusion results from the fact
that 60 per cent of the garbage. is,
brought into the landfill by privte con-
tractors who apparently do not provide
adequate records of the source of the
waste they truck.
CURRENTLY, 125 acres at the site
are filled. Past estimates have projec-
ted that the remaining 65 acres will be
filled by 1985, but Ford said stricter en-
vironmental requirements recently
enacted by the state will reduce the life
of the landfill tomid-1982.
In response to this fact -the city has
sought to buy land adjacent to the site
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from privte owners in order to expand
the landfill. Negotiations have resulted
in the recent approval of a purchase
agreement for 54 acres at a cost to the
city of approximately $250,000.
In addition to this land, known as the
McCalla parcel, the city is actively
negotiating for another parcel of
roughtly the same size and cost. Ann
Arbor citizens will be voting on ap-
proval or rejection of approximately
$600,000 in bonds needed to finance
these purchases.
HOWEVER, FORD points out that as
pressure increases to use land for
development and housing, and the cost
of acreage rises, then as a long term
solution "landfilling is out," since the
land simply won't be available."
Recognition of the need for develop-
ment of some type of long term solution
resulted two years ago in the creation of
a special Mayor's Ad Hoc Committee,
composed of city administrative staff
and two council representatives.
Committee Chairman Ulrich Stoll
said the impetus for creating the com-
mittee was that "it was clear we were
running out of land" and stricter en-
vironmental regulations were making
landfilling more expensive. In addition,
the landfill was an 'unsightly mess,"
with neighbors complaining of blowing
litter and a smell when the wind was
strong. Finally, resource recovery was
becoming a national concern.
IN THE COURSE of the last year, the
committee and an engineering con-
sultant firm it hired became convinced
that constructing a shredding facility
was a viable option. A shredder, by
compacting garbage, would increase
the life of the landfill by approximately
75 per cent, according to SWD
estimates.
However, despite the growing atten-
tion to recycling, efforts to find future
local markets for the city's garbage
have not been successful. Although
some of the companies contacted by of-
ficials expressed interest, the city has
not received any firm commitments:
Another problem facing the city is the
large initial cost of the shredder -
estimated at $2.6 million. This also
must be approved by the voters, and the
council will be under pressure to make
a decision prior to February 15th - the
deadline for getting the measure put on
the April ballot. If the deadline is
missed, no action can be taken until
next year.
THE SWD REPORTS that in 1978
operations, the disposal cost of garbage
was $7.40 per ton, while shredded fill.
would have cost $10.40 per ton.
However, these cost comparisons have
been strongly criticized by committee
menibers, and may become a point of
controversy in front of the council as
well.
In general, operating a shredder will
become a relatively cheaper means of
waste disposal as land costs rise and
environmental standards are
strengthened.
However, recent study has caused
Ford to question the validity of even the
shredding facility as an adequate long-
term solution.
The SWD repot, prepared for the'
committee earlier this week and to be
pr'esented to the council Monday,
proposes "construcfing a facility whose
initial function will be a transfer
station." A transfer station would in-
volve bringing the refuse to a centrally-f
located facility and then taking it by
trucl to various private landfills, most
likely in Wayne County.
spokesman, said, "She's the only one
(hijacker) as far as I know."
THE WOMAN was described as
about 5-foot-2 and about 40 years old.
Inside the terminal, police blocked off
the concourse.
The pilot of the plane reported he had
received a note saying nitroglycerin
was aboard the plane, officials said.
The note the pilot received also
demanded that one of three enter-
tainers read a second note to thenews,
media. The contents of that note, sup-
posedly hidden at Los Angeles Inter-
national Airport, were not immediately
known.
In Los Angeles, FBI spokesman John
Morrison said FBI special agent in
charge Ted Gunderson had taken
Charlton Heston, one of the enter-
tainers named in the pilot's note, to the
Los Angeles airport.,
Irv Cuevas, regional manager of
Unitedtpublic relations in Los Angeles,
said company officials were waiting for
a telenone call from New York.
The plane, Flight 8 from Los Angeles,
landed at 7:29 p.m., EST, and the FBI
conducted airport operations.
Negotiations with the hijacker were
handled through the tower, officials
said.
It could not be confirmed whether ex-
plosive nitroglycerin was actually on
board the plane.
"There's a chance that they can
refuel here and the plane go off
anywhere," said Quentin Ertel, and
FBI spokesman.
Ertel said as far . as he knew, the
passengers were all right.
Actor and singer Theodore Bikel was
one of the passengers aboard the plane,
his wife Rita said.
"IS everything fine? 'We have two
babieseonthe plane," said David
Barouk, of Manhattan, who was waiting
for his wife Nichama, their two children
-- Done, 11/2, and Asaf, eight months -
and sister-in-law Dikev Hake, who were
on the plane.
United spokeswoman . ary
Stringfellow in Los Angeles said the
note given to the pilot demanded that
network television be pre-empted so
one of three famous entertainers could
read a message allegedly left at the
airport.
"The pilot reported that he was being
hijacked .. .about 10 miles west of
Prescott, Ariz.," said Dennis Feldman,
a spokesman for the FAA in
Washington. He added that there were
119 passengers and 12 crew members.
aboard.
MS, STRINGFELLOW said that the
note given to the pilot did-not demand
that the flight be rerouted. She said the
note demanded that 'a highest United
official should contact either Lindsay
Wagner, Jack Iemmon or Charlton
Heston," all entertainers.
Ms. Stringfellow said the note said
that the writer was "'willing to die for
the cause, but I don't know what the
cause is, and ' that he has
nitroglycerin."
Port Authority police in New York
said PA officers, city police, FBI agents
and a special hijack team were to be at
the airport for the arrival of the Boeing
747.
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Bakhtiar Khomeini
to meet in Paris
(Continued from Page ),
marchers, dressed as civilians, iden-
tified themselves as air force men.
People in the crowd continually
questioned foreigners as to whether
they might be Americans and many of
the slogans they carried were ant=
American. But otherwise there was no
sign of anti-Western hostility.
The official radio said one person was
killed and 27 were injured yesterday
during a pro-Khomeini march in the
northern city of Grogan. But it reported
all marches in other cities went off
peacefully.,
THE DEMONSTRATION in Tehran
was allowed by the authorities because
its ostensible purpose was to mark the
anniversary of the death of the Prophet
Mohammed - the founder of Islam - a
major Moslem holiday.
But the government and martial law
administrators have insisted that all
unauthorized marches would be put
down ruthlessly. This was the
justification for the toughness with
which Friday's demonstrations were
broken up.
r