The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, September 29, 1992- Page 7



Detroit
.requests
more time
for tests
DETROIT (AP) - As teachers
returned from their four-week strike
to classrooms yesterday, some had
questions about how they would ad-
equately prepare their students to
take tough standardized tests already
being given in other districts.
The Michigan Educational
Assessment Program (MEAP) tests
are administered at the end of
September to students in the 4th, 5th,
7th, 8th, 10th and 11th grades.
Students are tested on their reading,
math and science proficiency.
School board administrators have
contacted the Department of
Education to request an extension of
up to 28 days - the length of the
Detroit teachers' strike, said
Willliam Brown, acting coordinator
forttest administration. He said the
state routinely grants extensions to
districts hit by teacher strikes.
Detroit teachers and the school
board reached an agreement
Saturday to end a strike that idled
10,500 educators and 168,000 stu-
dents since Aug. 31.
Students were scheduled to return
to school today.
Some teachers and administrators
wondered if the teachers' strike
would impact Detroit MEAP scores.
"We usually deal with preparing
for the MEAP during the month of
eptember," said Janice Pinchum, an
elementary reading specialist at
Warren G. Harding School on
Detroit's northwest side. "The stu-
dents may not have time to practice."
Brown has seen no evidence that
MEAP scores are lower in districts
hit by teacher strikes. But, he said,
students might have difficulty if
their test preparation time was
shorter than in other districts.
"We don't know how the strike
will impact the students," said
Rosalyn Whitney, press secretary to
Superintendent Deborah McGriff.
"There may be many negative ef-
fects. The judge found there was ir-
reparable harm being done as a re-
sult of the illegal teachers' strike."

Interior Dept.
may open parks
to stnp mining

MOLLY STEVENS/Daily

Write away
Kevin Grifhorst, an engineering sophomore, registers to vote yesterday on the Diag.

DuPont fails to announce
toxiC cloud; residents furious

WASHINGTON (AP) - The
Interior Department is close to ap-
proving rules that could open na-
tional forests and, in some cases
possibly national parks, to strip min-
ing unless the government buys the
mineral rights.
Interior spokesperson Steven
Goldstein insisted Yesterday that
there are no plans to allow strip min-
ing in national parks because in each
of those cases the govermnent would
buy up mineral rights or arrange for
a land exchange.
Goldstein said the policy change
involves "fundamentaliy a constitu-
tional issue" over the right of those
holding mineral rights to be com-
pensated.
"The rule change makes it very
clear there will be no mining in the
parks," added Goldstein.
"This could be the most disas-
trous action taken by any administra-
tion in the 76-year history of the
National Park Service," Paul
Pritchard, president of the National
Parks and Conservation Association,
a private advocacy group on park is-
sues, said in a statement.
An association spokesperson,
Kathy Westra, said the issue of
compensation should not be dealt
with administratively, but left to the
courts, and that the proposed Interior
policy change could strain the de-
partment's fund for handling com-
pensatory claims.
Strip mining has been prohibited
on federal protected lands for 15
years, ever since Congress enacted
broad-reaching strip mine legislation
in 1977. The law exempted those.
mining interests that held "valid ex-
isting rights" to coal deposits prior
to enactment of the law.
How to deal with those who hold
such rights has been the subject of

controversy between environmental-
ists and mining interests for years,
leading to a number of court cases as
well as debate within the Interior
Department.
The department informally has
defined those with "valid existing
'This is fundamentally
a constitutional issue.
Can the government
take someone's right
to develop their
private property
without
compensation?'
- Steven Goldstein
Interior Dept.
Spokesperson
rights" as anyone who had made
"good faith efforts" to mine the coal
prior to Aug. 3, 1977, when the
strip-mining law went into effect.
Several court decisions have said
the prohibition amounts to an un-
constitutional taking of property un-
less the government compensated
those holding valid permits.
Goldstein said the new regula-
tion, which has been in preparation
for more than a year, is an attempt to
deal with these issues of fair com-
pensation and not an effort to pro-
vide less protection to parks.
"This is fundamentally a consti-
tutional issue. Can the government
take someone's right to develop
their private property without com-
pensation," he said "The department
believes that under the 5th
Amendment that cannot be done."
Goldstein said no final rule on
the policy change is expected for
several months. Among the issues
still unresolved is development of a
formal environmental impact state-
ment, he said.

MONTAGUE, Mich. (AP) -
Some residents are angry that offi-
cials at a nearby chemical plant
waited until last week to tell them
about a toxic cloud that wafted over
their homes back in July.
Officials at the DuPont
Chemicals plant in Montague say
they didn't tell residents about it
sooner because they believed the es-
timated 70 pounds of hydrogen fluo-
ride released July 22-24 was too
small to spread off company prop-
erty and threaten public health or the
environment.
DuPont learned otherwise last
month.
An independent forester hired by
the company found a path of chemi-
cally scorched pine trees extending a
mile west of the plant. An internal
probe pinpointed the July hydrogen
fluoride release as the culprit.
"We did not realize when it hap-
pened that there would be any im-
pact away from the immediate
manufacturing area," said Robert F.
Singleton, DuPont plant manager.
"If we had realized that, we would

have notified people right away."
He said the company was not
legally required to report the release
because it involved less than 100
pounds of the compound.
Company officials spent much of
last week in private meetingswith
about 30 White River Township
property owners whose Eastern
White Pine trees were scorched by
the toxic cloud.
Exposure to relatively low levels
of hydrogen fluoride, which DuPont
uses to make freon, can burn lungs,
eyes and nasal passages. Inhaling
larger doses of the chemical can
cause lung failure and death, accord-
ing to the National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health.
Nearby residents informed of the
release said they did not experience
any health problems that might be
linked to the toxic cloud.
But DuPont's handling of the in-
cident has upset several residents
downwind of the plant.
"It's pretty scary," said resident
Holly Hughes. "You immediately

think of where you were on July 22
and where the kids were playing."
The chemical was released as
workers cleaned a chemical storage
tank, when a scrubber designed to
capture and recycle the chemical
malfunctioned, Singleton said.
DuPont is installing new equip-
ment to prevent similar mishaps in
the future, Singleton said. The com-
pany will compensate all property
owners for the damage caused by the
chemical release.
But Local environmentalists are
furious.
"Hydrogen fluoride is one of the
most powerful acids known to man,
and to let any of that go without any
indication, that is atrocious," said
environmentalist A. Winton
Dahlstrom, a Whitehall city
councilman.
Diana Anderson, an
environmentalist and member of
Muskegon County's Emergency
Planning and Community Right to
Know Committee, said she will ask
the state Department of National
Resources to investigate.

Police suspect political

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ANNOUNCEM ENTS

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Council
Bridaina the Past
eAlumni events
.Thank-a-thons
eAlumni panels
the Present#
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eBlue Spirits
eShadow Program
and the Future
eCampus tours
eStudent panels
eSiblings' Weekend
Mass Meeting
Tuesday, Sept. 29 e
6:30pm in the
Alumni Center
(near MLB )
763-9754

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5 min. Walk to campus. No smoking, no pets.
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notebook & desktop systems. We deliver in
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761-2381.


motivation
MAITLAND, Fla. (AP) - A
state lawmaker's wife was wounded
by gunfire at their home Sunday in
what police believe was a politically
motivated attack.
Judith Starks, the wife of state
Sen. Robert Starks, was struck about
4 a.m. by a bullet that passed
through her calf as she slept, said
sheriff's spokesman George
Proechel. She was treated at a
hospital and released.
The gunman entered the Starks'
backyard, fired two shots through
the master bedroom windows, one
into the kitchen and another two
through the family room windows
with a large-caliber handgun,

in shooting
Proechel said.
"We do not think this was just a
random act of violence," he said.
"Our assumptions are at this point
that it was some sort of politically
motivated crime."
No arrests were made by late
Sunday but Proechel said
investigators were pursuing "some
very serious leads," including
information from a neighbor who
followed the fleeing gunman.
Starks, a Republican representing
the Maitland area, was in Atlanta
early Sunday and returned home
immediately. He said he had no idea
who would want to threaten his
family.

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RECREATIONAL
SPORTS

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