Page 4-The Michigan Daily- Thursday, January 14,1993
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420 Maynard Street
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109
764-0552
Editor in Chief
MATTHEW D. RENNIE
Opinion Editors
YAEL CITRO
GEOFFREY EARLE
AMITAVA MAZUMDAR
Edited and Managed
by Students at the
University of Michigan
Unsigned editor ials'represent a majority of the Daily's Editorial Board.
All other cartoons, signed articles, and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion of the Daily.
Envotech ducks responsibility...
In the 1970s, the waste management company
Michigan Disposal dumped as much as 20,000
barrels of hazardous waste into an Augusta Town-
ship landfill intended only for nonhazardous waste.
When the state of Michigan warned parent com-
pany Envotech that it had to clean up the contami-
nated dump, Envotech tried to duck its responsi-
bilities.
The Department of Natural Resources ordered
Envotech on Thursday to cap and monitor the
dump site. Meanwhile, Augusta residents await a
court ruling on the case they filed against the
disposal company in 1988. The dump clearly
poses an immediate danger to area residents, and
the state should demand immediate and thorough
clean-up operations.
It appears that Envotech has tried to minimize
its responsibility in the public's eye by engineer-
ing complicated, smoke-screen deed transfers.
Envotech owns a group of sister companies in
Michigan, including Michigan Disposal. To avoid
liability, Envotech created the dummy Augusta
Development Corp., who subsequently purchased
the landfill from Michigan Disposal. The estab-
lishment of Augusta Development was apparently
a legal move to reduce Envotech's liability.
Despite the smoke screen, Envotech is still
ultimately responsible for hazardous waste. Using
a plethora of aliases may work to confuse the
courts and the Augusta residents, but the state of
Michigan is obligated to force Envotech to begin
immediate clean-up.
Envotech hired a group to investigate the area
around the dump site, although the condition of the
actual pit remains unknown. It is clear, however,
that the site is unprepared for hazardous material
and is leaking toxins into the surrounding area. For
example, since the landfill was not meant to hold
hazardous material, it lacks a bottom liner that
keeps waste from leaking through the floor of the
dump. If the waste seeps as far as some fear is
possible, it could contaminate a delicate ecosystem
and further threaten the already endangered lives of
Augusta's residents.
Beneath the dump lies two aquifers which pro-
vide water for the surrounding area. The toxins
found in drains nearby could make a short 12 to 15
mile trip into Lake Erie, poisoning the groundwater
and soiling local wetlands that support wildlife.
Citizens have already felt the impact of the
dump, suffering reduced real estate values and
threatened economic growth. Farms and animals
also are a concern. "People in Augusta Township
feel like they've been held hostage for 20 years,'
said James Burger, a trustee on Augusta's environ-
mental strategy committee.
The state must retreat its current environmen-
tally-unfriendly policies and keep environmental
ogres like Envotech, and like-minded corporations,
from destroying the quality of life in Michigan.
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*
-.:
LETT'ERS
Lift arms embargo on Bosnia-Herzegovina
To the Daily: Herzegovina. overwhelming superiority in
Western governments and On the other hand, the goal of weapons inherited from the former
humanitarian rights organizations the Serbian leaders is to create Yugoslav army, the third largest in
have documented the existence of and ethnically pure state within Europe.
dozens of so-called "rape camps" parts of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Some say that allowing more
where non-Serb women and girls, Croatia which they eventually weapons into the region will
some only 12-years old, are hope to merge with Serbia itself, simply increase the killing. Well,
systematically raped and often All non-Serbs and those Serbs the killing until now amounts to
murdered by Serbian soldiers. The who oppose this policy are genocide against innocent
following is the testimony of a "cleansed." For the past nine civilians and it is still happening.
40-year old woman: months the world has done If the United Nations and the West
"Every day the same picture nothing to stop the atrocities and cannot decide to stop it, let the
was repeated; they would rape the Serb policy of ethnic cleans- Bosnians at least defend them-
and kill in front of hundreds of us. ing. Despite promises to close all selves. Please call or write the
Once a young woman with a baby concentration camps, they still United Nations, Bush, Clinton and
was taken in the middle of the exist. your congressmen and urge them
hall. It was June. They ordered The Bosnian people have the to take action immediately to lift
her to take off her clothes. She put manpower, the will and the right the arms embargo on Bosnia-
the baby on the floor next to her. to defend themselves against Herzegovina.
Four Chetniks (Serb soldiers) genocide. Yet the West continues Damir Juric
raped her; she was silent, looking to impose an arms embargo on Engineering graduate student
at her crying child. When she was Bosnia while the Serbs enjoy
left alone, she asked if she could ______________________________
breast-feed the baby. Then a
Chetnik cut the child's head off Process of getting promoted
with a knife. He gave the bloody T
head to the mother. The poor To the Daily: the candidates mentors or co-
woman screamed. They took her In a recent article on retention authors). It is common that this set
outside and she never came of faculty at the University ("The of external letters is supplemented
back." flip side of the Michigan Man- by three or four letters from
There are hundreds of reports date," 1/6/93) some persons were faculty colleagues here at the
such as this that make your quoted as saying that three or University. External letters of
stomach turn. 35,000 women are four letters of recommendation recommendation are critical to the
held captive in these camps. should be enough to support a entire promotion process. To be
30,000 women are pregnant, promotion in academic rank at effective, letters must be written at
forced to bear Serbian children. our University. Students and a level of detail that will assure
Tadeuz Mazowiecki, a former faculty need to know that this our promotion committees that the
prime minister of Poland, now a statement simply does not apply candidate is indeed recognized as
special envoy of the U.N. Human to professional ranks in LSA or in a significant scholar at the
Rights Commission, has reported Engineering, by far the largest national and international levels.
the following to the United teaching units in the University. The evidence of scholarly
Nations: In these colleges it is abso- distinction, letters and the publica-
"The collected evidence leaves lutely routine that 10 or more tion record, is then put together
no doubt as to who is responsible letters are included in the dossiers with the candidate's teaching and
for the horror: the Serbian of individuals being considered service record to form a promo-
political and military leaders in for promotion in the professorial tion dossier that is scrutinized and
Bosnia-Herzegovina, supported ranks. These are letters from debated at the departmental,
by the authorities of the Serbian established scholars, most of collegiate and university levels
Republic." whom must be at institutions before being submitted to the
The objective of the Bosnian other than the University. regents for approval. The integrity
government is to establish a free, Moreover, it is mandatory that no of this promotion process is basic
civil, modern and democratic more than one or two of these to the future of our University.
society of Bosnians, Croats, Serbs letters be from persons who have ens Zorn
and all other nationalities in the close professional associationsPysrsso
sovereign state of Bosnia- with the candidate (for example,
-..
Waffling over CRISP concerns
a
..while planning another dump
E nvotech continues to play Russian Roulette
with the residents of Michigan. The company
currently has a plan to build the nation's second
largest hazardous waste disposal site, just 12 miles
north of Ann Arbor in Augusta Township. Though
their last proposal was turned down by the Michi-
gan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) be-
cause of questionable and obsolete information,
they are expected to submit a revised version by
the end of the month. Envotech, however, has
already proven its willingness to dismiss resi-
dents' health and en-
vironmental con-
cerns. The DNR.
should inform-
Envotech that Michi--
ganisn'tinterestedin
the further construc-
tion of waste sites.
The proposed __
waste site would con-
sist of a hazardous
waste landfill, an in-
cinerator and two
deep injection wells.
Though Envotecha
promises that the
1,800 acre landfill -__-_-
will be completely
safe, the DNR should
recall the Environmental Protection Agency's
warning that all landfills will eventually leak.
Since waste disposal companies subject incin-
erators to only one trial burn, the threat that they
pose is often unpredictable. Moreover, toxins es-
cape into the atmosphere as stack gas.
Though it is difficult to test the effects of the
toxic chemicals that incinerators emit, scientists
say that they undoubtedly cause both short and
long-term health problems. Deep injection wells
will be little more than a half a mile below the
aquifers, which provide water for thousands of
Augusta residents.
This medley of environmental threats would
only be compounded by the danger that trucks
transporting the millions of pounds of waste would
cause. Highways 23 and 94 would be time bombs
with the threat of accidental spill forever imminent.
Because the proposed site is near a prison which has
no evacuation capability, such an event would be a
compounded disaster.
Supporters of the proposal claim that the oppo-
sition, spearheaded by Michigan Citizens Against
Toxic Substances (MCATS), is just a not-in my-
backyard effort.
NUT 1A UL.,s!.
I'~IWECIL
Yet, the argu-
ments against
constructing the
site are convinc-
ing.
For instance,
the wetlands on
which Envotech
would build the
landfill are not
geographically
favorable.
Additionally,
Michigan al-
ready has the ca-
pacity to handle
the toxic waste
that will be pro-
duced in Michi-
0
gan for the next 20 years.
The site would become a dumping ground for
this entire part of the country. Michigan already
imports millions of pounds more hazardous waste
from other states and Canada than it exports.
Envotech has further complicated the issue of
the dump by linking it to a cleanup of the leaking
site in Augusta.
It promises to remove the hazardous waste from
the current Augusta site by pumping it into the
proposed injection wells. Envotech would use the
remaining capacity to make a profit. One offense
can't be used as an excuse to commit a larger one -
Envotech's plans must be quelled.
Split emerges in Republican party
"political elections often result in major realign-
ments of political parties. Parties can shrink
(Republicans, 1912), expand (Democrats, 1936)
or disappear completely (Whigs, 1852). Follow-
ing George Bush's defeat this past year, the Re-
publican party seems on the brink of a major
upheaval which will determine its future course.
Housing Secretary and likely presidential can-
didtate Jack Kemp, as well as neocon notables
William Bennet and Jeane Kirkpatrick, formed an
advocacy group for what they call "progressive
conservatism." Its oxymoronic nature aside, "pro-
gressive conservatism" promises to be a more
palatable alternative to the fascism of Pat
Buchanan, which the Republican Party has been
heading to as of late.
This schism could be viewed less as a reaction
to Bush's loss than as a culmination of the Chris-
tian Right's twelve year ascendancy into the main-
stream of the Renublican Party.
for a new direction. (It is a testament to the Right's
success that what is today considered a "moderate"
Republican would have been considered conserva-
tive 15 years ago.)
It remains to be seen whether the rift will heal by
1996. Under Ronald Reagan, the party has held
together by adopting the supply-side economic
policies of the more moderate Kempites with the
social agenda of the reactionaries. Young urban and
suburban professionals were attracted to the former,
born-again Christians to the latter.
Now that its charismatic leader has departed, it
is clear to the two factions that their political
objectives are incompatible. The moderate formula
for electoral success entails winning back the inde-
pendents who supported Reagan by emphasizing
low taxation while de-emphasizing divisive social
issues.
The right seeks to mobilize what it sees as a
slumbering conservative white Christian majority
Selecting a schedule is one of
the most difficult choices you will
make during your college career.
Actually, this is untrue. Select-
ing a schedule is easy. The old guy
at the CRISP station simple tears it
off the printer and hands it to you.
There's no real choice involved.
Select-
i n g
classes, on
the other JONATHAN
hand, can
be an or--
deal. My
first few
times, I
w e n t
through
the following procedure:
Look through course descrip-
tion book, find a set of interesting
classes.
Go to Angell Hall, get in line
for CRISP. Discover that all the
courses I had signed up for have
closed.
Look over the shoulder of the
person in front of me in line to see
what they're signed up for. Copy
their schedule.
The major drawback is that my
classes always come as a c'omplete
surprise. By the beginning of the
year, I've forgotten whatmy classes
are about. The following is a verba-
tim transcript of a conversation I
had with another student on the
first day of classes last semester:
Me: So, what class is this?
Him: Poli Sci 412
Me: What are we studying?
Him: The legal process.
Me: The legal process? I don't
want to study the legal process!
What was I thinking?
Him: I really don't know.
Me: Can I borrow some note-
book paper?
And, of course, the system
breaks down completely when deal-
ing with foreign languages:
Professor Etbrichtu ma drolgin
ha'vrahin.
Me: Excuse me, what language
is she speaking?
So now I've changed my
method, and I carefully consult the
course description book before
CRISPing. Only now I've realized
that the courseguide system, too,
contains one major flaw: everv-
of the department, each description
conveys two basic pieces of infor-
mation. First, the class entails a lot
of work. Second. it fulfills the race-
gender-ethnicity requirement. Here
is your typical course description:
History345:Developmentofthe
Frozen Waffle, 1657-present.
"Lego my ego." What does this
mean? In this course, we will trace
the developmentof the frozen waffle
from its inception, including such
innovations as syrup and the micro-
wave. If you're not prepared to do a
lot of work, this is not the class for
you.
By the end of the semester, you
will be expected to prepare a frozen
waffle using the method of your
choice. We will also examine the
impact of the frozen waffle on the
oppression of women and people of
color. Four credits.
now
So say a group of students likes
the description and signs up for the
class in March. The summer passes.
They come back to school in Sep-
tember, and all they have is a sched-
ule that says. "History 345."