The Pittsburgh Press from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 6

The Pittsburgh Press Tuesday, March 28. 1989 8 mark '79 TMI nuclear accident with pre-dawn vigil MIDDLETOWN, Pa. (AP) A small group of people lit candles in the darkness outside the Three Mile Island power plant at 4 a.m. today, the moment the nation's worst commercial nuclear accident began 10 years ago. "It was an accident that changed the world as people knew it," said organizer Gene Stilp, a Harrisburg attorney.

Seven others participated in the vigil near the entrance to a driveway that leads to the plant gate. In the distance, the two 350-foot high concrete cooling towers of the still-active Unit 1 silently puffed white steam. The vigil ended about two hours later. About ISO people marched outside the plant yesterday. Residents near the plant said they are still angry about the accident and that they bear physical and emotional scars today.

"The so-called accident at TMI was an act of violence against mankind, an act of violence against the unborn," said Jane Lee, who lives near the plant in Etters, about 19 miles southeast of Harrisburg. The accident began March 28, 1979, when a series of human and mechanical errors allowed the plant's 150-ton radioactive core to lose cooling water. Half the core melted and 20 tons of molten material raced to the the reactor's bottom before it was contained by a remaining pool of water. Radioactive gas was released into the atmosphere over several days. Gordon Tomb, a spokesman for GPU Nuclear the utility subsidiary that operates the plant now, said extra people had been assigned to the main gate this morning.

The demonstration was peaceful. Officiate of General Public Utilities the plant owner, have said in the past few weeks that the company has made great strides since the accident and learned from the mistakes that were made. Since 1985, when TMI Unit 1 returned to operation, they said the company has shown it has the integrity and capability to safely run a nuclear power plant The plant owner still faces about 2,000 damage claims. Ernest Sternglass, a professor of radiation physics at the University of Pittsburgh and a critic of government health studies, said radiation from the accident boosted infant mortality in Pennsylvania, New York and Maryland and caused thousands of other deaths by lowering people's immunity. He said government officials manipulated mortality data to hide the damage.

"His allegations are not new," said George Tokuhata, research director for the Pennsylvania Health Department "They are absolutely untrue. It's ridiculous. We don't have an ax to grind. We're trying to report what we find." Bob Newlin, spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said TMI requirements are pending at 88 of the nation's 112 nuclear plants. But he said almost 96 percent of the 10,514 post-accident modifications have been completed, including most of the significant safety items.

AO Spill "Vr sl ,4," 't i. i A A federal takeover of the cleanup operation is one option that will be considered, the president said. En route to the spill scene were Transportation Secretary Samuel Skinner, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Bill Reilly and Coast Guard Commandant Paul Yost. Attempts yesterday to clean up the oil spill were set back by 70-mph gusts that swept the slick 40 miles toward the southwest, and forced crews to retreat. The cleanup "is not proceeding well believe me, that is an understatement," Iarossi said.

"We've got a mess on our hands." Fewer than 135,000 gallons of oil have been recovered from the 10.1 million-gallon spill. Beaches on four uninhabited islands have been fouled, and the slick fast approached sensitive salmon-spawning areas on the larger Knight Island to the southwest "It's unbelievable. That slick is moving like it's on a superhighway," said Iarossi. The goo also threatened the region's abundant herring, marine mammals and seabirds, biologists said. Nearly 100 oiled birds and two oiled sea otters have been spotted, and many more stricken animals likely have gone undetected, said Pamela Bergman, an Interior Department spokeswoman.

The cleanup was getting more difficult as the leading edge of the slick moved into more remote areas of the sparsely inhabited sound. The foot tanker was carrying 1.2 million barrels of North Slope crude oil when it ran aground. About 240,000 barrels spilled through the hull. The vessel remained stuck on Bligh Reef, about 25 miles from Valdez. Iarossi and Exxon spokesman Don Cornett said efforts to unload the 1 million barrels that remained on board the vessel were progressing well.

Iarossi said Exxon hoped to have about 95 percent of the remaining oil off the vessel in three or four days. The wind damaged some of the-containment booms used to corral the oil, Iarossi said. (This article contains information from The Associated Press and the San Jose Mercury News.) The Rev. Vincent Cvitkovic of Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Ambridge, poses with visionary Artist calls crucifix Marija Pavlovic in a photo taken in Medjugorje, Yugoslavia, where Virgin Mary is said to appear. eye-closing divine from page Al was uncertified to be at the helm in the stretch of the sound where the grounding subsequently occurred in the Prince William Sound.

Blood alcohol tests on all the key officers were taken after the accident but results have not yet been released, Coast Guard officials in Valdez said. Oil prices receded slightly this morning, one day after oil futures prices on the Mercantile Exchange rose to their highest level in 19 months. Traders attributed the decline partly to profit-taking and uncertainty about the long-term impact of the Alaska spill. They also said more uncertainty about prices and supplies was raised by the start of an Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries meeting this morning in Vienna, -Austria. The price of the May contract for West Texas Intermediate oil, the benchmark U.S.

crude, fell to $20.20 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Yesterday, the contract rose 38 cents a barrel to close at $20.53. All the crude oil pumped from Alaska's rich North Slope, which accounts for 25 percent of U.S. production, is loaded on tankers at Valdez. The harbor has been closed to other tankers since the accident Friday.

Coast Guard Cmdr. Steven McCall, however, said he planned to reopen the port today. Prices increases should be felt at the local level almost immediately. Jack Haver, spokesman for. West Penn AAA Motor Club in Pittsburgh, which as surveyed gasoline prices locally for 15 years, said "it doesn't take too long" for oil companies to pass on such price shocks.

"It will be almost immediate," said George Pastor, executive director of the Northeast Ohio Petroleum Retailers Association, which represents about 520 independent services stations. He said Radnor, Sunoco is one of the first to increase prices. "They don't wait for old stock to run out. They want people to pay (for prices increases) in advance. In Washington, President Bush today dispatched three senior federal officials to Prince William Sound to "take a hard look at where this disaster stands." Heinz bill for repairs By Joe Grata The Pittsburgh Press U.S.

Sen. John Heinz feels the federal government should distribute another $500 million a year to states like Pennsylvania with serious bridge problems. At a press conference on the deteriorated Smithfield Street Bridge today, Heinz said he has introduced legislation to provide the additional funding for "projects like this." He said the money would come out of the $9 billion surplus in the Highway Trust Fund, paid for by motorists when they buy gasoline. The administration and Congress have used the surplus to cut the nation's annual budget deficit. The Smithfield Street Bridge, which may have to be closed later this year if tests show its superstructure is too brittle, is expected to cost $6 million to rehabilitate.

If it must be replaced, PennDot District 11 Engineer Henry Nut-brown said the state does not have money programmed for the work. Heinz estimated Pennsylvania would receive $25 million to $50 million more each year, if his bill passed, for critical bridge work. Because the money will come By Tim Vercellotti The Pittsburgh Press When the eyes of a crucified Jesus appeared to close on Good Friday at Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church in Ambridge, artist Domenic Leo was among those who scaled a ladder and inspected the statue with astonishment. Leo spent two weeks in January restoring the crucifix, including repainting the blue-gray eves of Jesus in the last stages of life. Leo said he was in shock after he looked closely at the eyes Friday night By yesterday, that shock had turned to belief and acceptance.

Recalling that Good Friday marks Jehus' death, he said, "I figured it outi It was so symbolic. How could thefe possibly be a living crucifix on Good Friday?" The purported change in the plaster statue has strengthened Leo's faito. It also has focused attention on Vision' from page A of Mercy, Downtown, and the diocesan director of pilgrimages. Sometimes a handful of local people will hook up with a larger group in New York or Boston, or 80 Pittsburghers might fly direct from here, he said. On the Connells' second trip to Medjugorje, one of the visionaries said Mary wanted them to go home and spread her message to as many people as possible.

The attorneys, who said they saw the sun pulsate in the sky during their visit, took the call seriously. After much prayer, "We decided the gravity of the messages was such that, if it cost us our reputation, it was the least we could do. And we backed up our words financially. If it cost us the last thing we had, it was the least we could do," Mrs. Connell said.

They will not solicit donations for their work until they have exhausted their own means, although unsolicited Contributions are accepted, she also runs an art supply shop in Aliquippa, Vista Art Center, ana has taught art, worked as a magazine illustrator and operated an art gallery. Over the years, Leo has painted, using oils, acrylics and water colors, and has entered his paintings in shows. From time to time, he also has restored statues. His latest project was refurbishing four 90-year-old copper statues of Civil War veterans in a park near the Beaver County Courthouse. Leo and his wife, Pauline, are members of St.

Frances Cabrini Roman Catholic Church in Center, Beaver County. Two years ago, at the invitation of a friend, they began attending weekly meetings of a prayer group at Holy Trinity. In January, members of the group asked Leo to restore the crucifix, which was more than 50 years old and was hanging in a hall at the church. With the wooden crucifix laving confessions," Cvitkovic said. "It's too much for one person.

I haven't done a thing in my office for three days." Return to the sacrament of reconciliation better known as confession is a hallmark of Medjugorje. The Rev. Edwin Moran, who leads a monthly Medjugorje-oriented prayer group of 200 to 300 people at St. Paul of the Cross Monastery, South Side, said use of the sacrament has increased significantly there. To encourage more local people in Medjugorje-style devotion, parishioners of Holy Trinity in Robinson will open a Medjugorje information center in May, said Sister Agnes McCor-mick, who works at the parish.

The parish is organizing its third pilgrimage to Medjugorje for April 25 to May 2 with space left for about 20 people in a tour for 85, she said. The parishioners' budding interest in Medjugorje was dramatically en on two sawhorses in the church social hall, Leo stripped varnish from the cross, buffed and sanded it, then painted it with tung oil. He repaired cracks in the statue, which is made of a plaster mixture reinforced by steel rods, and repainted it. Leo restored the blue-gray hue of the eyes, but the shade was barely visible when he climbed a ladder and checked the statue Friday night. "The left eye had a little gray going horizontally across it, as if you got something in your eye and couldn't open it.

The right eye was slightly open he recalled. Leo said the closing of the eyes is not an optical illusion, and said the eyes could not have closed without divine intervention. The eyelids are made of the same plaster mixture as the rest of the statue, he said. "This is a solid piece of statuary, strong and rigid, and well-done to still be here over half a century later." couraged about a year ago after rosaries belonging to the pastor and one layman turned to gold, she said. Although that happened before the first parish pilgrimage, that same phenomenon has been reported by many people during visits to Medjugorje.

On subsequent Medjugorje-infor-mation nights, the church has been packed with people from as far away as West Virginia and Ohio, Sister Agnes said. "I think that in this day and age when there is so much sorrow and so much turning away from God, so much sin I think people are genuinely reaching out from their hearts, searching for some type of hope," she said. The Monday night prayer group of the Consolata Missionaries grew from a pilgrimage of 33 people to Medjugorje in 1987, said the Rev. John Marconcini, their superior. ers and mom and daddy didn't even go into them drawers," he said.

"I just think that's important." To date, drug testing in public and private schools has followed two basic trends: screening of athletes and routine testing of students with histories of drug and alcohol abuse. If a program as far-reaching as Indianola Academy's already exists, experts say it would be within the nation's private schools, which generally have more leeway than public schools in adopting stringent rules. Mandatory drug testing of public school students at random is considered illegal, but the climate may be good for private schools to adopt" such policies, one expert said. "I can't see any federal reason why a private school couldn't do said Gwen Gregory, deputy general counsel for the National School Boards Association, Alexandria, Va. (The Memphis Commercial Appealdistributed by Scripps Howard News $erviee.) asks funds to bridges from the surplus, Heinz said no new or increased federal taxes will be required.

The federal gas tax is 9 cents per gallon, a penny of which is for mass transit. The federal government has been increasing financial support to bridge repairs and replacements to about $1.6 billion a year. Heinz' bill would increase the amount $2.5 billion. PennDot and other state highway departments get less than full allocations because the federal government withholds money. PennDot recently estimated its "credit" at $300 million the state's share of money being held as part of the federal Highway Trust Fund surplus.

Heinz said Pennsylvania should be rewarded for taking the initiative to fix bridges on its own, passing three "billion bridge bills" and spending more than $200 million a year on bridges. Despite the infusion of money, Frank Mascara, chairman of the Washington County commissioners and the six-county Southwestern Pennsylvania Regional Planning Commission, said that one-third of 4,886 area bridges are closed, weight-restricted or functionally deficient the artist, a 61-year-old lifelong Catholic who refurbished the crucifix free of charge at the request of parishioners. Leo contended with interview requests from reporters across the country yesterday as he came to grips with what members of Holy Trinity parish say is a miracle. The restoration of the life-sized crucifix may be the Brighton Township, Beaver County, resident's most famous project, but it is one of many in a string dating to his student days at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in the late 1940s. Leo grew up in Aliquippa, Beaver County, and attended Aliquippa High School.

He entered the Navy at age 17 and served for two years during World War II. Following the war, he enrolled at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and studied there for four years. Throughout his adult life, he has operated D. Leo Sign Co. in Aliquippa, making signs for businesses.

He said. Ambridge's Holy Trinity parish, "where the eyes of the crucifix reportedly closed on Good Friday, also has extraordinary ties to Medjugorje. At least four of its former pastors were born and raised in the village although one of them is an outspoken critic of the apparitions. But the current pastor, the Rev. Vincent Cvitkovic, is a close confidant of two of the visionaries.

He started a three-hour Friday night prayer service modeled after the one in Medjugorje. Each week about 200 people attend, many from far outside Beaver County, although the only publicity until last week was in the parish bulletin. Following a visit by Pittsburgh Bishop Donald Wuerl who indicated he was there as a pastoral gesture last night's mass was standing room only. If interest keeps up, "I will start asking other priests to come hear the setters," he said. "We're" just trying to do whatever we can to look out for our kids." The decision to start a drug-testing program was passed unanimously by Indianola Academy's school board three weeks ago.

Assistant Police Chief Roosevelt Harris said the city of 13,000 people 130 miles south of Memphis, Tenn. "sort of" has a drug problem, noting two burglary-related shootings a couple of months ago. Much of Indianola's crime is fueled by a crack-cocaine trade, he said. The Indianola Academy policy requires the school's 276 students in grades 7 through 12 to sign consent forms before school starts in August and then submit to urinalysis testing throughout the school year. Burns said all students, faculty and staff will be tested before the school year is over.

The school still is not sure which drugs it willest for, Burns said, Mississippi school sets drug-testing White House workers get May drug hearing WASHINGTON (AP) Employees in the Executive Office of the President will have a hearing in a federal court in May on their lawsuit charging that mandatory random drug tests are unnecessary and unconstitutional. A hearing had been scheduled in U.S. District Court for next month but, at the request of the government it was postponed until May 11 so that the Justice Department could review a ruling by the Supreme Court last week. The White House has agreed not to start testing until 10 days after the hearing, if it is not prevented to do so by the court Jeffrey F. Liss, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney who represents the employees, said last night the Supreme Court decision did not answer the questions involved in the White House case.

The court allowed the government to test railroad workers after accidents and applicants for U.S. Customs Service jobs involving drug interdiction. In early January, 30 White House employees sued President Bush to block the testing, one of more than 50 suits filed government-wide to stop the urine sample, drug tests. although alcohol and marijuana have been named. The drug testing will cost $8,000 to (9,000 a year, and will be paid for through community donations, Burns said.

If a student fails a drug test and verification, he must undergo treatment and be checked again 100 days later. If he fails again, he will -be suspended from extracurricular activities, Burns said. The testing is part of a larger drug-education program and the main goal is to help students, not punish them, Burns said. "Ours is a very caring program," he said. "We want to help our people." Still, not all agree with the testing.

"It distresses me greatly," said Scott Poindfixter, 50, a local cotton farmer and former Indianola Academy school-board member who sent his five children to the school. "When I was raising my children, everybody had their chest of draw- Scrlpps Howard News INDIANOLA, Miss. A private school in this western Mississippi towfi will institute mandatory drug testing next fall for its student body and faculty, a plan that may be the country's most aggressive school antidrug program. Under the program, students of Indianola Academy who won't con- -sent to drug tests won't be allowed to attend. Those who do consent and test positive won't be expelled or suspended but can be prohibited from taking part in extracurricular activities.

The policy, which takes effect in August, also applies to all teachers, administrators and the 24 members of the school's board. Headmaster Homer Burns said no decision has been made on what action would be taken against teachers and officials if they test positive. "We're not trying to be any trend-" A Li-.