Casper Star-Tribune from Casper, Wyoming • 9

star Wyoming Bl Tuesday, December 10, 1991 Star-Tribune, Casper, Wyo. Sullivan refuses national position Sullivan said he thinks council membership serves a useful purpose for Wyoming. "These days I think it does a lot of good with the sort of stresses and strains that exist between the federal government and state governments and between the he said. "It provides a forum for exchanging information and you can learn what other state legislatures are doing to deal with prob-: By DAVID HACKETT Star-Tribune Washington bureau WASHINGTON Wyoming Gov. Mike Sullivan has declined an invitation to serve as president of the Council of State Governments during 1992.

Sullivan said Monday that his decision was unrelated to the Legislative Management Council's recommendation last week to drop Wyoming's membership in the organization as a means of reducing state costs. "I was approached a week or 10 days ago and asked if I would be interested," Sullivan said. "I considered it and decided I have enough outside activities." In a letter dated Dec. 5 to Paul White, the council's chairman, Sullivan said he was honored by the invitation but that his duties as governor, his work as chairman of the Western Governor's Association and co-chairman of the Aliiance for Acid Rain Control leave too little time for the council presidency. As governor of a member state, Sullivan sits on the council's governing board but he said Monday that the state legislature has been more active in the group than the executive branch.

The invitation to Sullivan represents a departure from the way the council traditionally selects its president, according to council spokeswoman Judy Stogner. Stogner said the departing president, Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, would ordinarily be succeeded by the president-elect, who is Mississippi Governor Ray Mabus. Mabus, however, did not win relection as governor of Mississippi and was thereby disqualified from assuming the council's presidency, Stogner said. A five-member nominating committee was then asked to submit a more suitable candidate from the ranks of the nation's governors, she said, and Sullivan's name was selected. Stogner said the council is the oldest and largest association of state government leaders from all three branches of government, representing all SO states as well as Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S.

territories. Among other things, she said, the council publishes reference provides state officials with on-line access to a computerized listing of innovative state programs, and coordinates consulting services between state agencies. Star-Tribune file plans study to find cause of 'serious outbreak' Pneumonia threatens Fremont bighorn herd Mader: 'Saved taxpayers millions' lems. Stogner said Wyoming paid $45,400 in annual dues for the current fiscal year, which ends next June 30. She said the state's dues would increase in fiscal SULLIVAN 1993 to $48,200.

Because of its small population, she said, Wyoming's dues are: consistently among the lowest in the country. California, for example, paid dues of nearly $285,000 in fiscal 1992, she said. Stogner said Wyoming is not alone in considering whether to cancel its council membership. She said the stagnant national economy has also caused at least a couple of other states to contemplate drop-; ping out of the group. and diverted any excess to the state's general fund.

"There was about a $180 million price tag to the failure of the Legislature last year to pass that legislation," Mader said. "That would have been sufficient funds to balance any shortfall we're fac-ing. Mader said he believes financial troubles will continue to plague the state unless the Legislature takes on a stronger auditing -function. Otherwise, lawmakers' will remain dependent on the governor to assume most of the responsibility for the budget. The former senator suggested that a legislative committee review each agency once every six or seven years.

He said the committee could "totally crash" the current budget and rebuild it piece by piece. "They would truly get a zero-based budget," he said. Mader said he would like to see Sen. Jim Geringer, R-Wheatland, succeed him on the appropriations committee because Geringer' shares his philosophy and has the experience to manage the committee. The commissioners from John-; son Campbell counties will fill Mader's vacancy in a meeting on Friday in Gillette.

They will choose his replacement from candidates selected by the Republican central committees in the two counties. DUBOIS (AP) The effects of a major pneumonia outbreak in the Whiskey Mountain bighorn sheep herd near here appear to be worse than first thought, according to state wildlife experts. Ever since 400 sheep were killed when the disease swept through the herd last winter during a frigid storm, the remaining herd of about 900 animals has been slowly regenerating. But hunters in the area reported seeing far fewer lambs than usual and despite a reduction in permits this season, hunter success rates are down considerably from last season. "We had hopes that limiting the number of permits would maintain hunter success rates," said Wyoming Game and Fish biologist Tom Ryder.

"The drop in hunter success combined with the low number of lambs and yearlings we're seeing is a pretty good indication of how serious this outbreak was. Prior to the outbreak there were plenty of lambs and yearlings." The state agency plans to begin a study later this month to determine just how well the herd is recovering, according to an article in the department's Wyoming Wildlife News. "We could see a gap in the age class distribution of the herd and poor lamb survival for the next few years," Ryder said. "There's still a lot of questions to be answered and we'd like to wait until we get our classification completed to be sure, but it's likely that we'll have to keep the number of available permits at a conservative level for the next couple of years." The outbreak will have short-term and long-term effects on the herd, he said. In the short term, sheep that survived the outbreak will be in below-average physical condition, making them more susceptible to stress and disease.

In the long term, poor lamb and yearling survival means fewer older rams in six to seven years. "Finding an older, mature ram six or seven years from now will be more difficult than it has in the past," the biologist said. Despite the outbreak's toll on the herd, things could have been worse, said Tom Thorne, the agency's veterinarian. "We're actually pretty lucky we could have lost the entire herd and its migratory patterns," he said. Sheep are traditional animals and older ewes and rams teach young sheep where to go at what times of year, Thorne said.

Gary Butler, the agency's habitat branch supervisor, said the outbreak "may well be the catalyst we needed to get the Forest Service, BLM (U.S. Bureau of Land Management) and our agency working together on some large scale habitat improvement in the area." funds. The supermajority bill would have required a two-thirds majority vote of the Legislature and the approval of the electorate for any tax increase. Mader said such a measure is critical to controlling government spending. The other proposal would have capped receipts from mineral severance taxes and other state revenues to special accounts, such as the highway and water accounts, KELLY MADER State needs 'zero-based' budget ii 'Heartland Expressway' gets federal funds boost DAVID HACKETT Star-Tribune Washington bureau WASHINGTON About $30 million in federal funds for the so-called Heartland Expressway between Scottsbluff, Neb.

and Rapid City, S.D., was authorized in this year's highway bill contrary to earlier reports. The six-year highway bill, which was passed in November just before Congress adjourned for the year, authorizes the expenditure of $640,000 to study the feasibility of converting the existing road between the two cities into a 4-lane expressway. The bill also authorizes $29.6 million "to improve the Heartland Expressway." Some Wyoming residents are unhappy with the Heartland Expressway primarily because it would provide an alternate four-lane link between 1-80 and 1-90, thereby reducing the volume of traffic on 1-25 through Wyoming. In a joint statement released Friday, members of the Wyoming congressional delegation said "they were pleased to see this project peeled back to basic improvements" but that "the fight is just beginning" over the proposed expressway. Wyoming GOP Sen.

Alan Simpson's press secretary, Stan Cannon, said the bill would provide money to maintain the existing two-lane road but not to upgrade the route to an expressway. Dorothy Endacott, a spokeswoman for Sen James Ex-on, said, however, that there is no restriction on how the money may be used and that it could be used to begin work on converting the existing route into an expressway if the feasibility study supports doing so. But Endacott said that South Dakota and Nebraska must vote to commit matching funds to the feasibility study before the federal money can be released. Endacott also said that the highway bill is only an authorization and that none of the money in it has been appropriated yet. Exon and his colleagues from Nebraska earlier this year sought $300 million to upgrade the entire route to an expressway.

The highway bill passed by the House of Representatives in October authorized $35 million over six years. The bill passed by the Senate contained no money for the project. The sum included in the final bill was agreed to during lengthy conference committee meetings in November. Because of erroneous information supplied to the Star-Tribune the day Congress passed the highway bill, an earlier report incorrectly stated that funds for the Heartland Expressway had been stripped entirely from the highway bill. Eleven more Yellowstone bison shot by state workers BOZEMAN (AP) Eleven bison that left Yellowstone National Park were killed on Church Universal and Triumphant property Monday by state game wardens.

All 1 1 animals were bulls and were shot by employees of the state Livestock Department and Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks on church property near Corwin Springs, said Bob Mar-tinka, FWP regional supervisor in Bozeman. Members of the Northern Cheyenne tribe dressed out the carcasses of six of the animals and took the meat to their reservation, Martinka said. The other five will be sold at auction Wednesday in Bozeman, he added. State wildlife and livestock officials have killed 27 bison since mid-November. Four have been shot near West Yellowstone and 23 in the Corwin Springs area, where the Church Universal property is located.

National Park Service officials from Yellowstone Park were on hand Monday but were not involved in the shooting, Martinka said. Park rangers on horseback have been trying to herd bison back into the park "on an almost daily basis and it's been unsuccessful," Martinka told The Associated Press. CHYENNE (AP) Sen. Kelly Mader, R-Campbell-Johnson, officially resigned Monday, saying he is leaving Wyoming with both a sense of accomplishment and failure. Mader, who moved to Engle-wood, to form a public policy group, served in the Legislature for seven years, was co-chairman of the Joint Appropriations Committee for the past four years.

In an interview with The Wyoming Eagle, Mader said he is most proud of what he called the "fiscal responsibility" he brought to the state. "It's not been to the extent I would have liked, but's certainly more than what I believe would have occurred had I not been there," said Mader. "I think the records will show that I have saved the taxpayers literally millions of dollars in the seven years I was on Appropriations." But Mader said the state still is spending beyond its means. "You have to live within your means and we have exceeded that since 1986 by $285.3 million," Mader said. "The inability to bring about that real-world fiscal discipline has certainly been a disappointment." Mader said two measures he advocated last winter would have helped avoid the budget crunch the state is facing.

They were a "supermajority" bill and a partial "de-earmarking" of state Wyo sawmill wants court to dissolve injunction SHERIDAN (AP) Wyoming Sawmills Inc. has asked the 10th Circuit Court in Denver to dissolve an injunction on standards to regenerate trees in the Bighorn National Forest. The injunction stemmed from a lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club against the Bighorn Forest in July 1989. The lawsuit alleged that the U.S. Forest Service violated federal law by adopting a standard that would allow the forest's lodgepole pine to regenerate from logging in seven years, rather than five years.

The Bighorn National Forest last month decided to replace the seven-year standard with the five-year standard, complying with a court order. "Mill officials cited the uncertainly about the Bighorn National Forest timber sale program created by the court's order as the primary reason for returning to the court at this time," said sawmill spokeswoman Susie Ponce. Larry Mehlhaff, the Sierra Club's regional director in Sheridan, said his organization will likely oppose a court decision to remove the injunction "because it will allow the sawmill to put additional pressure on the Forest Service to cut more trees. "The sawmill is trying to convince people that if the injunction is removed, more trees could be cut. But that's a joke.

It's not true," Mehlhaff said. Company fined for waste shipped to LaBarge refinery By KATHARINE COLLINS Southwestern Wyoming bureau DENVER A settlement with the federal Environmental Protection Agency stemming from the improper export of hazardous waste to a LaBarge recycling facility has cost a California company $247,500, the EPA announced Monday. D1CO, Inc. of Corona, has reached settlement following alleged violations of the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) for improper hazardous waste disposal at facilities in Wyoming and Utah. EPA brought the action after discovering that wastes were shipped between 1986 and 1989 by a contractor hired by DICO to facilities in Utah and Wyoming that were unauthorized to receive such materials.

A related settlement in July 1990 cost the Walt Disney company $550,000. "It's the same case and the same scenario," John Works, an EPA spokesman, said Monday in a telephone interview. "DICO manufactures trailers in California and they paint the trailers, and generate hazardous wastes. They shipped it illegally to Mountaineer Refinery." Other facilities receiving the wastes were Ekoteck, Salt Lake City, and Desert Oil, Roosevelt, Utah. The importation of hazardous wastes from southern California to near the town of LaBarge surfaced in April 1 990, when EPA threatened Don Thayer and his two LaBarge companies Mountaineer Refining Co.

and Mountaineer Equipment Co. with fines of up to $25,000 a day for alleged "sham recycling" and "improper disposal" of hazardous wastes from southern California. The EPA charged at the time that Thayer was improperly burning trichlorethane (TCA) and trichlorethylene (TCE). EPA does not allow the use of those compounds for energy recovery because the process involves burning at too low a heat to achieve complete combustion of the chemicals. Ingestion of or exposure to high vapor concentrations of TCA or TCE by humans can cause headaches or drowsiness.

TCA can also cause central nervous system damage, according to a national occupational safety manual. Under the terms of the most recent agreement DICO will pay the fine and cease shipment of hazardous waste to unauthorized treatment. Unidentified man dies in Newcastle fire NEWCASTLE The apparent victim of an early morning fire Friday in Newcastle has still not been identified, according to Newcastle police. Firefighters discovered the body of a white male while putting out the fire in a residence near 2nd Avenue and the Burlington Avenue railroad tracks, officials said earlier. Mark Alsop, an investigations officer with the Newcastle Police Department, would not provide any information on the cause of the man's death or whether authorities suspected foul play.

A spokesman at the Weston County coroner's office said cause of the man's death has not yet been determined. Alsop said police, the state fire marshall's office, and the state crime lab are investigating the fire. The victim's identity might be established today, he said. Universal asks appeal on bond ruling LANDER The owner of the abandoned Atlantic City Iron Mine filed a notice of appeal in a $4 million bond ruling in district court here. Universal Equipment of Fremont, Ohio, "is going forward with our appeal of the court decision," William Niggemyer, company president, said Monday.

On Nov. 22, District Judge Elizabeth Kail imposed the $4 million bond in connection with reclamation work at the mine site, located south of Lander. Kail said she imposed the bond to "ensure Universal will comply with the Wyoming Environmental Quality Act." Niggemyer said his company filed the notice of appeal Friday and the district court entered the notice into the court record Monday..