Tyrone Daily Herald from Tyrone, Pennsylvania • Page 4

Page 8 THE DAILY HERALD, Tyrone, Tuesday, February 27, 1990 Ferry Has New Owners HOSING THE BEACH High-pressure, hot-water hoses break up the tarry residue on a stricken shore of Alaska's Green Island and wash it to the water's edge for collection. Such methods, however, sometimes killed shoreline organisms. Some 11,000 workers were part of Exxon's $1 billion cleanup the largest U.S. tanker spill. HUGE STAIN Staining the vista of Alaska's Chugach Mountains, the Exxon Valdcz lies atop Bligh Reef two days after dumping 11 million gallons of oil into Prince William Sound.

The 42 million gallons of remaining oil that would have vastly multiplied the disaster if the Valdez had sunk were pumped into smaller vessels. Will Winter Help Heal Ravages Of Oil Spill? National Geographic News Service VALDEZ, Alaska People arc waiting out the winter in Prince William Sound, waiting with questions, controversy, and hope for spring to see how the wounds of the worst tanker spill in U.S. history have healed. The oil cleanup effort is closed down for the season, and many scientists now feel it is time lo let nature cleanse itself with the tides and violent storms of winter. Had the cleanup stopped too soon in September, or had it actually done more harm than good? In the beginning, when the supertanker Exxon Valdcz gutted itself on Bligh Reef and vomited 11 million gallons of crude oil into the exquisite waters, it seemed truly like the ending of a world.

Seabirds were dying by the thousands in the muck. Eight days after the March 24, 1989 disaster, writer Bryan Hodgson walked shorelines that glittered black as far as he could sec. But five months later, he reports in the current Naitonal Gcogrpahic, "incredibly I found pink salmon spawning in a stream that had been choked with oil, iuid I smclled fresh seaweed on a pebble beach where native bacteria had eaten much of the oil away. "Clearly the world had not ended," Hodgson writes. "Equally clearly, its rehabilitation had just begun." The damage ht(d been staggering.

Oil had drenched or spattered at least 1,200 miles of shoreline. Experts believed that as many as 100,000 birds had died. Some 150 bald eagles and at least, 1000 sea oilers had perished. The slate had canceled the opening of herring fisheries and restricted the salmon take. The Exxon Corp.

had spent Si billion on a cleanup campaign in which some 11,000 workers had scoured beaches with everything from high-pressure hot-water jets lo rakes, shovels, and paper towels. "Sometime in July the cleanup crossed the line from being beneficial to being harmful. In effect, we crcalcd a second oil spill," Hodgson was told by Jacqueline Michel, a science adviser to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). "Our tests showed large-scale mortality in beach organisms after some of the hot-water washes," she said. "Also, because of the flushing away of oil- coaled scdimenls, we found up lo 10 times more hydrocarbons in the intcrti- dal and subtidal zones than we did just after the initial spill." Michel said lhat within three years after the 1978 Amoco Cadiz disaster, which dumped 68 million gallons of oil on ihc French coasi, scicnlists had found that most of the major impact had disappeared.

"The story is much the same in all crude-oil spills," she said. To learn more about ihe long-lcrm consequences of ihe Alaska spill, Hodgson visited affected areas three times over a five-month period, surveying hundreds of miles of coastline. Piecing logclhcr informalion from many sources, he found lhat by midSeptember: of salmcn fry released into Sawmill Bay in the spring from a Prince William Sound salmon hatchery appeared to have survived well. The bloom of plankton, a crilical food for fry, was ihe highest ever seen in the area, a sign of no conlamination. Five ihousand fish tested at a stale environmental health laboratory contained no crude-oil contamination.

hundred halibut tcsied by NOAA were not contaminated, but a few pink salmon conlained some traces of hydrocarbons in their flesh. Mussels and clams from sites severely damaged by the spill were contaminated. In the first days after the spill, confusion was the norm in Valdcz. "It was almosl as though this spill was the first one we've ever had," Hodgson was told by Coast Guard Vice Adm. Clyde Robbins, who was appointed lo coordinate the response of industry government committees.

Committee members hadn't dcali wilh oil before, Robbins said. "Everyone had a veto vote. And anyone who said 'maybe we should wait to sec what nature docs' was angrily questioned." As the mechanical cleanup wound down for the winter, a subtle, more natural cleanup program had just begun on Knighi Island. Environmental Protection Agency scientists successfully demonstrated a process called biorcmcdiation, in which oil-eating bacteria native to Prince William Sound "may become the best cleanup crew of all," Hodgson wriics. Test plots on a long pebble beach were sprayed with a special fertilizer thai stimulated the bacteria to degrade the oil faster.

They began showing a dramatic difference within two or three weeks. On a Green Island beach, Hodgson writes, "there were still signs of oil but not the sticky black enamel-like coaling thai had been left after ihe first assault. I saw mussels and barnacles and seaweed growing in crevices of the rocks." MILLERSBURO, Pa. (UPI) An historical ferry across the Susquchanna River has passed into new hands in an effort to keep it afloat into its third century. The Millersburg Ferry the only licensed river ferry in the state and believed to be the last wooden stem paddlewhcel ferry in the country has been carrying passengers and vehicles across the river about 25 miles north of Harrisburg since 1817.

Two weeks ago, Community Banks NA of Millersburg bought the business for $10,000 and turned the title over to the Millersburg Chamber of Commerce to be run by the Ferryboat Association. Tina Feller, chairman of the association, said the two-boat ferry was in danger of shutting down because its private owners felt they could no longer keep the system in operation. "We arc asking for community support," Fetter said. "We're going to be doing our membership drive. Then we're going to be doing some special things along the river." Currently, the fiat-bottomed wooden boats are in drydock for the winter.

Passage across the river will resume in April, coinciding with the annual Cherry Blossom Festival, she said. The previous owners, Randall Wallis and his father, Robert Wallis, of Liverpool, bought the ferry in 1968 and established a campground adjacent to the landing. They paid Capt. Jack Dillman lo run it, until eight years ago when they began leasing the boats lo Dillman. In 1989, they leased ihc boats to Capl.

Jim Burke of Lancaster. Randall Wallis said an accident last June convinced them to sell the busi- Hate Crime Rate On The Rise In Pa. PITTSBURGH (UPI) "Hate" crimes are on the rise in Pennsylvania, a state official says, as more and more people are targets of violence because of their race, religion or sexual preference. Richard Anliot of the state Human Relations Commission said incidents of harassment, assault and vandalism against particular groups have risen sharply during the past two years. There were a handful of incidents on Pennsylvania college campuses in 1987, he said, but the number grew to nine in 1988 and 16 last year.

Anliot's comments came Saturday during a symposium on hate crimes held at the University of Pittsburgh. He was joined on the panel by George Simmons, a regional director of the Human Relations Commissions, along with representatives of minority and gay-rights groups. "The riots are over. The programs are over. The courts have spoken as to what is affirmative action," Simmons told the estimated 25 spectators at Pitt's Law School.

"Now the hard pan comes. We're going to have to live with one another and accept each other for what we are." U.S. Rep. William Coyne, the daylong conference's lead speaker, said he expects Congress will pass a law within weeks lhat requires the federal government lo keep statistics on hate crimes. "It's almost embarrassing this law is not on the books in 1990 already," the Pennsylvania congressman said.

Coyne said the statistics could prompt lawmakers to impose suffer penalties for crimes committed because of a victim's race, religion, ethnic background or sexual preference. The breakdown could eventually include the poor and homeless, he added. The weekend conference was organized by a Pitt law student in response to last September's brutal killing of a gay man in Schenley Park. Dennis Stefan, a member of a gay-rights organization composed of law students, said most people view hate crimes as "isolated incidents and not part of a general pattern." The Daily Herald Serving Bellwood Antis Snyder and Warriors Mark Twp. Call 684-4000 and Subscribe Today! ATTENTION: Church Groups, Scout Groups, School Groups, Organizations: Kimmel World Travel is happy to offer Bus Tours, Escorted Group Travel Group Discounts to parties interest in traveling anywhere in the U.S.

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"It was the closest we had ever come (to capsizing). We had the liability hanging over our heads and we said there was no way we would ever lease the boats again," he said. Wallis said another reason to sell it was the increasing cost of maintenance. He said the city of Millersburg might be able to apply for government funds to maintain the ferry as a historical project. The boats take 20 minutes to paddle across a one-mile expanse of river between Millersburg, a municipality of 3,800 people on the east side of the river, and Liverpool on the west shore.

Although it short-circuits a 24-mile trip across the Susquchanna River Bridge at Clark's Ferry and an even longer round trip through Sunbury to the north, there is little demand for passage between Liverpool and Millersburg, Wallis said. He estimated three- quarters of the riders arc tourists. "Back through the '50s and '60s and even up to the '70s there was a lot of commuter traffic," Wallis said. "Back then, there was more commerce back and forth across the river. Most of the commerce now goes lo Harrisburg.

You 're not going to take the ferry cither way to get to Harrisburg." Fetter disagrees, and believes the ferry can attract more non-tourist customers. The association has a committee assigned to study lowering fares. Passage was 25 cents per person and $2.50 per car until 1988, when fares were raised to $1 and $4. "It is quite a lot," she said. "We're looking at whether it helped or hurt the business." She said the association has a number of tasks to take care of before re- launching the service.

Both boats the Roaring Bull and the Falcon require mechanical and carpentry repairs. There is also the matter of finding a captain. Fetter said four people have applied for Ihc captain's job. Wallis said the ferry can be self- supporting. "Wilh the rate what it is right now and the amount of tourists, the ferry will pay for itself," Wallis said.

"A lot more could be done to promote it. The biggest problem moncywisc is keeping these boats in repair. Down the road eight or 10 years the boats are going to have to be replaced." Bush, Kohl Agree To NATO Membership For A Reunited Germany By NORMAN D. SANDLER WASHINGTON (UPI) West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl outlined a course lo a new Germany under the reassuring umbrella of NATO as the steady march toward reunification has raised security concerns fed by memories of two world wars. Welcoming reunification as "a golden moment" in history, President Bush countered the anxiety of some other Western leaders Sunday in embracing Kohl's vision of a united Germany that honors the security needs of all states.

"If events arc moving faster than we expected," Bush said after weekend talks with Kohl at Camp David, "it just means that our common goal for all these years of German unity will be realized even sooner than had been hoped." At a joint news conference, Bush and Kohl agreed that Germany must remain a full military partner in NATO with U.S. troops stationed on its soil to guarantee stability and, not incidentally, Germany's own peaceful intents. Kohl appealed for' 'reason and good judgment" while acknowledging worries in the East as well as the West that the unwanted product of reunification will be the German domination of Central Europe, economically if not militarily. The meeting with Bush, which brought Kohl to the United States for about 24 hours, was intended to give U.S. officials a clearer picture of West German thinking on the future of Germany and the balance of power in Europe.

To those who doubt his ability or commitment to keep Germany anchored in NATO, Kohl reminded reporters that he put his' 'political existence at stake" in 1983 by backing the deployment of NATO nuclear weapons in West Germany over intense domestic opposition and said brusquely, "Nobody has to tell me what a reliable partner is." While determined to keep Germany in NATO, Kohl left such key issues as the future presence of Soviet troops in what is now East Germany and preservation of the German-Polish border to formal talks expected to begin after the March 18 East German elections. Bush, who admitted two weeks ago that even he had trouble keeping up with the whirlwind change in Europe, said the role of the major powers is not to dictate the timing of reunification, but to guarantee "that whatever evolves will be stable and that peace will be the result." During their hour-long news conference at a lodge in Catoctin Mountain Park, not far from Camp David, Kohl and Bush sketched only the vague outlines of the unified Germany they want to sec emerge from 45 years of forced separation. Both emphasized the need for U.S. troops in what is now West Germany, both to guard against instability and dramatize its link to NATO, and Kohl suggested that some of the 380,000 Soviet troops now in East Germany might remain during the "transition period" to full reunification. Neither could anticipate the workings of the "two-plus-four" talks that will bring the two Gcrmanys together with the four wartime allies the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain and France to lock in security arrangements to erase the vestiges of postwar division and occupation.

But they rejected a request by Poland to be at that negotiating table to protect territory gained from Germany after World War II. Kohl also seemed cool to Poland's request for a formal treaty guaranteeing its border even before reunification occurs, while declaring that "nobody wants to link the question of national unity with changes in existing borders." Polish concern over the border issue runs so high that Prime Minister Tadcusz Mazowiecki suggested last week that Soviet troops remain in Poland to deter any attempted German reclamation of territory in the absence of a treaty. Kohl said it will be resolved only by a "freely elected" German parliament. "I do realize that there is particular interest on the part of the Polish people," he said, "and I am certain in the course of this process, we will find ways and means of adopting a solution satisfactory to everybody." The two leaders envisaged a broader political role for NATO as Cold War rivalries fade. Asked what the West would do if the Soviet Union balked at seeing Germany firmly embedded in NATO, Bush quipped: "We will do what Lyndon Johnson did.

We will reason together and it will all work out." We have a certain history. We must understand that there are certain fears on the part of our neighbors. And I'm talking about serious fears and not just the pretended fears of seeing a single Germany become the dominant economic power in Europe," he said. MAC'S MARKET 1658 Columbia Ave. Tyrone DELIVER Phone 684-O66O $9 1Q ROUND STEAK (full cut) Ib.

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