Arizona Daily Star from Tucson, Arizona • Page 17

Tucson, Friday, June 29, 1984 Page One 7 candidates free homo are they're unopposed By Steve Melsener The AritoM Dally Star Yesterday was a good day (or Sam Lena, In races where they do have some hopes such as the contest for a state House seat held by Democratic Rep. Cindy Resnick of Tucson it will be no holds barred, Munger warned. On the Democratic side, a combination of some last-minute disarray and what one party official called "a lack of flake candidates" explains why some Republican officeholders won't have to-campaign this year. i Pat Poore, first vice chair of the Pima County Democratic Central Committee, said they decided "there was no need this time" to take on some GOP incumbents holding countywide office. No one stepped forward to seek those jobs, and party leaders were too busy with some key races to look for any candidates, Poore said.

Many of the unopposed Incumbents, meanwhile, apparently were so sure they would emerge unscathed from this election year that they went out of town. Lena, a Democrat and chairman of the Pima County Board of Supervisors, was in Washington. So was Lphr, the Republican superintendent of Pima County schools. Lena has represented the southern and central portiftn of Tucson on the Board of. Supervisors for the past 10 years.

He is the only one of the five supervisors who will be unopposed, and it is the second straight time he has had a free ride. Jeffers, the county assessor, and Kirk, the county treasurer, both Republicans, were in Sedona attending an Arizona Association of Counties meeting. Kennedy, a Democrat seeking a second term as county recorder, was out of town as well. Girard, the justice of the peace in Precinct 6 and a Democrat, also went unchallenged this year. She had a tough election campaign four years ago against a lengthy list of candidates.

One unopposed incumbent who was in the middle of the last-minute hubbub at the county elections office was Wisdom, the constable in Precinct 4. After being elected in 1976, Wisdom went without opposition in 1980, and he apparently will go unchallenged in 1984 as well. He stood nervously in the elections office until the 5 p.m. filing deadline passed, and then gave his 7-year-old daughter, Sharicka, a big hug before heading off to celebrate over a couple of banana splits. "I really do like this doggone job," he said happily.

"I like it because I get to work outside. I promise to work hard for the next four years." Mora on the last day of filings. Page2B. opposition unless someone files as an independent or write-in candidate. Every election has some unopposed races, but there were more than usual this year.

In 1980, for example, only four candidates for county office and one for the Legislature ran unopposed. Many incumbents in Pima County may be going unchallenged because history has proved that they are hard to knock Republican officials at the Pima County level like to wait for Democratic incumbents to resign before going after those seats. And on the legislative level, the GOP is concentrating on "targeted" races around the state and did not work hard to mount challenges in Democratic strongholds, said state Republican Chairman John Munger. Arnold Jeners, Kicnara nenneay, Jim wm, Anita Lohr, Emojean Girard and Lee Wis-dom. They began and probably ended their re-election campaigns for county-level offices yesterday, the final day for filing nominating petitions for elective office.

No one filed papers to challenge their re-election, so they won't have to campaign unless opposed by independent or write-in candidates. Also apparently home free are a slew of Democrats representing Tucson's westside in the Legislature. Sen. Jaime Gutierrez and Reps. Peter Goudinoff and John Kromko, all from District 11, and Reps.

Carmen Cajero and Jesus "Chuy" Higuera from District 10, have no 1 Two Tucson policemen quit after drug-use accusations man's resignation, ''our original intention" was to fire him. Three or four other police employees including a member of Police Chief Peter Ronstadt's command staff also were subjects of that four- to five-month investigation, ac-cording to Taylor and other sources. The investigation, based in part on allegations made by a former friend of Crossman's, was closed in March. No disciplinary action was taken against the other police employees, because the allegations could not be proved, Ronstadt said at the time. Crossman has refused on several occasions since December to discuss his resignation with the Star.

At one point, however, he said "most" of the charges made against him were not true. Taylor said the two incidents did not signify any pattern or problem See TWO TUCSON, Page SB charges against Smith. They said evidence backed up allegations that he had used cocaine and marijuana. Smith adamantly denied any wrongdoing when contacted yesterday. He said his decision to resign had been planned in advance, and was made without regard to the outcome of the department's investigation.

Taylor said Smith resigned "prior to the department being able to take disciplinary action" against him. No other police employees were targets of that investigation. The Metropolitan Area Narcotics Squad, to which Smith was assigned, has 15 to 20 members. Richard Crossman, a 12-year veteran of the police force and a former narcotics officer, resigned in December during an investigation into possible drug-related activities. Taylor said that before Cross- By Edward Lempinen Th Arizona Dally Star Two Tucson police officers have resigned from the department in the past six months after police officials decided to discipline them over alleged use of illegal recreational drugs, according to sources familiar with the investigations.

Assistant Chief of Police T. Dean Taylor said yesterday that investigators were unable to prove criminal activity in either case. But, he said, drug-use allegations were made against the two officers, and investigations led officials to believe that both men had violated department rules and regulations, and should be disciplined. Narcotics agent Howard Smith, a five-year veteran of the force and former president of the Tucson Black Police Officers Association, resigned May 9. Taylor and other sources said investigators lacked sufficient evidence to bring criminal :3 1 J-T 1 Libertarians accuse Bahill, Corbin of keeping them off ballot unfairly o.

Emmttt Jordan, TIM Arizona Daily Star Danger zone A trench dug to assist feared dirt would cave in on children who have been work on improved bank protection on the Rillito playing in the ditch, and complained of a lack of River has prompted complaints of danger by nearby barricades. Police said last night that people should residents and at least one accident. A motorcyclist stay out of the area, but that they had no plans to suffered slight injuries Wednesday night when he barricade it Officials from the county Transport- tried to vault the trench near North First Avenue and tion Department, which is directing the work, did fell short, police said. One caller to the Star said he not return several phone calls yesterday. the Libertarians charged that Corbin and Bahill waited until Wednesday to issue a press release announcing that the Libertarians did not meet the requirements for the county ballot.

"The Libertarian Party has been unable to take any course of action because of the evasiveness of these public officials," the statement said. According to Jeney, Corbin failed to return several telephone calls she made to his office. Bahill said he was just doing his job. "They chose not to use any of the other routes that were open to them," he said. "And the attorney general apparently thinks we were correct in the way we han-dled it." Corbin said in a brief telephone interview yesterday that his office decided that because the Libertarians failed to meet the 5 percent requirement in Pima County, they "should have gone through the regular process," which offered three ways to get on the ballot.

Corbin denied Jeney's allegations that he deliberately waited until the last minute to issue a legal opinion. The Libertarians could have gotten 5 percent of the vote for county attorney, Bahill said, but they did not even have a candidate on the ballot for that position in 1980. They also could have collected signatures equal to 1 2 percent of the Pima County vote for governor in 1982 about 3,100 signatures. They also might have collected signatures from 1 percent of the total number of regis-' tered voters in the county, or 2,460 signatures. The Libertarians, meanwhile, find themselves in a Catch-22 situation regarding state law, Jeney said.

Because they qualify for the state ballot, the law requires them to elect precinct committeemen, who in turn vote for party officials. But since they can't get on the county ballot, they can't elect precinct committeemen, she said. By Steve Meissner The Arizona Daily Star Members of the Libertarian Party angrily accused local election officials yesterday of interpreting Arizona law narrowly to deprive them of a slot on the ballot. Party officials, including state Chairwoman Peggy Jeney, told reporters the Libertarians believe they earned an automatic slot on the ballot by winning 5 percent of the statewide They met that state requirement in 1982, thanks to former Republican Congressman Sam Steiger, who ran for governor as a Libertarian. Steiger collected 5 percent of the vote statewide.

He got only 4 percent of the vote in Pima County, however, and that's what is causing problems for the Libertarians. Because Steiger failed to meet the 5 percent re- quirement in Pima County, the party can't be on the local ballot automatically, according to Pima County Elections Director Larry Bahill and Arizona Attorney General Bob Corbin'. The Libertarians should have used one of three other methods spelled out in state law to get ballot status locally, they said. Because it is now too late to qualify, however, any local Libertarian candidate would have to run as an independent. Corbin's opinion means the Libertarians qualify for county ballots only in Maricopa and Coconino counties, according to Jeney.

She said the party is considering a lawsuit, and might ask a federal judge to hold up the election until the issue is decided. The chances of halting preparations for an election are slight, Jeney said. But she said the party does think it can make sure of getting on the ballot in future elections. In a statement distributed yesterday to reporters. Spot blackouts served the greater grid computerized system which begins taking the larger circuits out of service." By the time the computer quit unplugging, customers in 18 square miles of Tucson were wondering what happened.

The affected areas, Yohem said, were in a square-mile area at South Kolb Road and East 22nd Street, one square mile at East Sabino Canyon Road and East Tanque Verde Road, and 16 square miles bounded generally by East River Road, North Alvernon Way, East Speedway and North Stone Avenue. "We have a preplanned computerized program for shedding load," Yohem said. "These were intentional outages to protect the rest of the city from experiencing a major blackout." He said the whole off-again, on-again experience began at 2:13 pjn. and ended at 2:28 pjn. If your electricity went off for 13 minutes yesterday afternoon, thank the computer at Tucson Electric Power Co.

for deciding to pull your plug to save the rest of the city. Roger Yohem, public information assistant for the utility, said an electrical fault on a major transmission line "somewhere in the Pacific Northwest" triggered the problem. The utility's automatic equipment detached Tucson Electric from the electrical grid serving Western states, but then the equipment discovered that power being generated locally wasn't enough to meet Tucson's needs. "To minimize power Yohem said, "our system began shedding the load, or unplugging circuits. We had to shed 90 megawatts, and that was done by a Environmentalists urge testing of mine waste water for toxic chemicals plus seven interceptor wells near tailings ponds.

He said samples tested by the mine, the Community Water Co. of Green Valley and the state health department have shown low levels of sulfates. The waste water from tailings ponds is pumped back up to the milling system and reused, he said. Jerry Wyman, general manager of Anamax Mining said the report "raises possibilities that are really ghosts. Our mine has routinely for a long, long time sampled various ground-water wells for these chemicals, and we don't have them.w The report said that mining industry claims ttat toxic chemicals used in the separation of metals from the ore are lost through aeration or are absorbed by the mine taOiss have not been demonstrated.

The Cxiy is an attempt to provide information on the health effects of the chemicals. That fcrfarmation was not included in the Upper Santa Cruz Easia ISaes Task Force study released last year ty the Pima Association of Governments. The report urges that the state Department of Health Services act on the PAG recommendation that the underground infil- tration of waste water from the tailings ponds be halted by such technologies as: "Barrier" wells that pump tainted wastewater back up to the tailings ponds to keep the mining discbarges away from the ground-water supplies. Treating the used water in the tailings ponds by aeration and chemical neutralization to toxic substances. Substituting less toxic reagents tor more toxic ones.

In ir3.Arizcrovided 842,0 tons of copper, more than C7 percent of the taSsa's yearly supply. Pima, Gila and Pinal counties widch produce 73 percent of the state's rety almost on gnued fcr drtnfctea. atoSae asd feCrsrLl cxa, report astcd. Southwest Environmental Service, said the mining association, the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and agricultural interests opposed the program that gave the state Department of Health Services authority to require permits for all sources' that might pollute ground water. Hansen said the assocUtkm did nrjt lobby at the Capitol against ground-water regulation.

"We lobbied for a specific version of how it was to be administered. The association-supported case appeals being reviewed by the Water Quality Control Council, while Gov. Bruce Babbitt supported that appeals be heard by the director of the state healUi Dean W. Lynch, director of corporate public relations for Duval said: "There is no evttance Cat ese materials exist in the ground water. Klaety-ciae percent of chemicals used apper Cota-tioe fpes cat ia Cst ccptr conceaxrates to a smelter, where toy are djatroyei." Lynch said Duval las IS eonitor wcZa, By Jane Kay and Carmen Duarte The Arizona Oatty Star Health officials should immediately start testing tailings ponds and ground water for chemicals used in copper mining south of Tucson, says a report released yesterday by a local envinnmental group.

xanthates and such trace metals as arsenic, selenium, mercury, cadmium and radioactive metals could be present in the tailings ponds, the report warns. However, officials of Anamax Mining Co. and Duval Corp. and the president of the Arizona laoJng Association said the report isunfounded. The final report was prepared by researcher James Albert for Southwest En-vironmenul Service.

The metals that are discarded as waste during copper mmug are "fc2y toxic and. have severe degenerative eflects on the body when facetted in small amounts over long periods of the report said. Sulfates, or salts, from the mines are infiltrating the aquifer, but there is no evidence that any of these substances or their byproducts are reaching ground water at the present time, it said. But the report added: "The study shows the potential does exist for contamination of Arizona's ground water supply as a result of the present waste disposal practices at Arizona's copper mines." C.J. Hansen, president of the Arizona Mining Association, said "we do not believe" that toxic wastes exist in tailings ponds.

He said numerous studies by federal and local agencies have proved are no toxic wastes in the ponds. "Many of the mines south of Tucson already have interceptor wells and monitor wells. It is to our tteaeSt to ctture and return as much mratitg water as pote to the ponds or the mOtg system," Can-sen said. At a press conference yesterday, Pri-scilla Robinson, executive director. of i.