Vol. LXXXVIII, No. 41l-S
~m ich ig)an D M ll Wednesday, July 12, 1978
Sixteen Pages
Ann Arbor, Michigan Ten Cents
The
new
Plant
realit
contin
In li
tion A
count
yester
contra
time b
tion.
proces
EPA sets back sewage plant con
By JUDY RAKOWSKY for its plant construction and sludge chemical PCB.
long overdue construction of the hauling contract. Therefore, local officials reopened
Ann Arbor Sewage Treatment the bidding and eventually awarded the
seems to be coming no closer to THE SAGINAW-BASED Spence contract to Barton Malow Construction
y, with delays and increased costs Brothers Construction Co. submitted Co. of Oak Park. Spence protested to
uing to plague the project. the original low bid for the job at $33.2 the EPA about the contract award, and
ight of an Environmental Protec- million. However, construction has the agency gave local officials two
gency (EPA) ruling Friday, the been delayed by. the prerequisite of choices; award the contract to Spence
y public works department removing the tons of old sludge that Bros. and negotiate an agreement on
day decided to delay awarding a presently sit on the new plant site. sludge removal, or rebid the project.
ict for construction so it can have County public works officials have At Monday's City Council meeting
o consider its future coprse of ac- been wrestling with methods of safe Mayor Louis Belcher said "Both
EPA objected to the bidding sludge disposal in recent months, com- choices are unacceptable" to him.
ss the county had planned to use plicated by the content of the toxic Public Works officials and Council
00 LIIN-, ,.VUAILy 11CAU FIQI111GU LV bi3G
r- -
struction
members agreed that rebidding the
project will boost costs from about $2-5
million dollars.
PUBLIC WORKS official Joe Price
said it would be two months before the
new bids are "in hand" and at least
another month before the contract
would be awarded and the State Depar-
tment of Natural Resources (DNA) and
See EPA, Page 5
Explosion
kills 180;
300 more
injured
TARRAGONA, Spain (AP) - A
runaway truck loaded with industrial
gas exploded in a Mediterranean
coastal campsite yesterday, engulfing
hundreds of campers in flames. Police
say they had recovered 180 bodies and
feared the death toll would be much
higher.
Hundreds of persons were seriously
injured, police said. They said some of
the victims were blown into the sea by
the blast.
FLAMING GAS from the truck set off
a chain reaction of smaller explosions
of campers' cooking gas bottles.
One police officer said the scene
"resembles hell or what we think hell is
like."
A dozen houses near the campsite
were destroyed and some of the oc-
cupants were killed, police said. The
blasts demolished about 100 camping
trailers.
A MADRID propylene transportation
company - Cisternas Reunidas - took
responsibility and said an investigation
had been ordered to find out what hap-
pened. Officials said it was the worst-
ever campsite disaster.
Police said the 38-ton propylene
truck, carrying a single tank, overtur-
ned on a bend in the road, rolled over
the cement wall that separated the
campsite from the Castellon-Tarragona
highway and exploded.
A spokesperson for the trucking com-
pany said the truck was a Spanish
vehicle built in 1974, part of its regular
fleet, and was carrying its maximum
load of 43 cubic meters of propylene at
the time of the accident.
Medical sources said most of the
estimated 300 campers evacuated from
the scene suffered extremely serious
burns and many were about to die.
VICENTE MIRABET, head of a bur-
ns unit at La Fe health center in Valen-
cia, said 40 campers had been admitted
Nazis rally; crowd clashes
Skirmishes like this broke out Sunday at the Nazi rally in Chicago's Marquette Park. See picture pages, 8-9.
G
Tisch group fails to file-documents
LANSING (UPI) - The secretary of even a jail sentence. Those petitions are being checked, but
state's office plan to notify backers of Robert Tisch, the Shiawassee Drain the alleged campaign law violation will
the Tisch amendment that they may Commissioner who heads the coalition apparently have no bearing on whether
have violated state law by failing to file seeking a 50 per cent property tax the proposition qualifies for the ballot.
required documents, a spokesman said reduction, said he does not believe he The state campaign reform law
yesterday. violated the campaign law since his requires that a group working for or
The spokesman, Chris Thomas, said group is non-partisan in nature. against a ballot proposal must file a
the Tisch tax cut group - the Coalition statement of organization an annual
for Property Tax Reform in Michigan HE SAID he will consult his attorneys financial statement if it accepts con-