The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 2

Mart SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER A-2 Thumlay, SeptfmWt 8, 1988 to gas cltaBiifear County S0iic3s -mor Hepatitis scare RfUTlfl SLID ELL, La. Blood tests are being conducted on 27 sixth-graders who shared three needles to draw blood last week for a science project School Board member Phillip Gardner, a physician, said the greatest concern is not that the children might contract AIDS but that they might be exposed to hepatitis. If a hepatitis carrier is identified among the students, the others can be given a scrum to decrease the severity of the disease. Jack Marshall denied this. "We're not bloodthirsty," said' Marshall, one of three prosecutors who decide whether to pursue the death penalty in cases.

"We're try-' ing to uphold the law, and we take DIAMOND EXPERTISE Shown from "Quality Collection" of 'H' color. 'VS' clarity or better blames an overly aggressive district attorney's office made bolder by the new, more conservative state Supreme Court Santa Clara County's totals mirror a statewide rise in death-penalty convictions in recent years. The state numbers have grown in each of the last three years, from 18 in 1985 to 29 last year, according to the California Appelate Project" With 25 convictions statewide already this year, the 1988 total is likely to surpass last year's. 'Inflation hi punishment' "There has been an inflation in punishment," said Santa Clara County public defender Stuart Rappaport, a statewide expert on death-penalty cases who previously held the No. 2 job in the Los Ange DIRECT DIAMOND IMPORTERS 75 years on Post Street Union Square since 1912 such things very seriously.

He denied that the change in the state Supreme Court affected the decision-making process. Under previous Chief Justice I lose Bird, death-penalty cases frequently were overturned on appeaL "We now look at the cases under the same standards," Marshall said. "But now we know that it's for real. "Under the new court, I suspect we will ultimately see some executions. If anything, this has made a graver responsibility for us." SAM JOofc MchMM Sfcrt3 2nd floor.

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Koppers officials have stead fastly denied there is evidence that the plant caused the contamina tion. les public defender's office. "I think there's been a lack of good judgment and a lack of dis- cretion by the people making the decisions in the district attorney's office here," he said. "Not only is it unjust, it's extremely expensive. These cases can take from throe to six months." Rappaport would not discuss any pending cases but said prosecutors in Santa Clara County were seeking the death penalty in a number of cases where their counterparts in Los Angeles would not The reason, he said, may be that there are fewer violent crimes in Santa Clara County and therefore the prosecutors react more strongly to them.

But Deputy District Attorney ioxin rule iltk I in woviii Residents remain angry, fearful of contamination EXAMINER NEW8 SERVICES Elaine Brooks died of a blood clot in her lung and not of exposure to dioxin as feared by her neighbors in south Oroville, where Brooks' small farm was one of the first found to be contaminated by the hazardous substance, state officials said Wednesday. But Lynn Goldman, a Depart ment of Health Services toxicolo-gist said further tissue tests will be conducted before the preliminary finding is finalized. Goldman addressed a hostile crowd of 200 Oroville residents in a community meeting Wednesday night that her agency had called to discuss the department's latest re sults of dioxin tests. Testing chicken eggs In March, Brooks and her husband, Dan, were informed by the state Department of Health Services that tests of chicken eggs from their farm detected the can cer-causing dioxin. State health officials conducted the tests as part of a probe begun after an Arjril 1987 explosive chem ical fire at the Koppers Co.

wood treatment plant about a mile northwest of the Brooks' farm. The fire incinerated an estimat ed 9,000 pounds of pentachloro-phenol, a wood preservative that can create dioxin when burned. Dioxin is a highly toxic material used in chemical warfare agents such as Agent Orange. Toxicology experts say dioxin can cause cancer or birth defects in even tinv doses and can be created when pentachlorophenol (PCP) is burned. Many of those Wednesday night hooted Goldman when she SDoke.

and one man uttered obscenities during the first hour. Residents criticized the state health department's handling of the investigation. Norma Price called the agency's Nuclear chief for TVA system ASSOCIATED PRESS CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. Oliver Kingsley a retired Navy man with more than 20 years experience in nuclear energy, was hired Record number on death row from Santa Clara By John Flina OF ft EXAMNER 8TAFF SAN JOSE When the so-called "Halloween hacker" was sentenced to the gas chamber this week, he became the latest in a record number of death-penalty cases in Santa Clara County in re-cent months. William Michael Dennis, a 38- year-old former Lockheed technician, Tuesday was sentenced to die for hacking to death his ex-wife and her nearly full-term fetus with a machete on Halloween night nearly four years ago.

In a rambling, 30-minute speech before the verdict, he told Superior Court Judge John Schatr "If you eliminate Oct 31, 1984, I'm a decent human being." Dennis was the third person in Santa Clara County to be sentenced to die in the gas chamber in the last 18 months. Fourteen other capital cases a record number are pending, and prosecutors are considering seeking the death pen alty in five others. Last week, top administrators the district attorney's office asked supervising criminal Superior Court Judge John Flaherty to consider appointing additional judges to hear death-penalty cases. At present, Schatz presides over the vast majority of such trials. Prosecutors attribute the rise to an upsurge of violent crime in San ta Clara County and say they have little choice but to seek the death penalty in such cases.

But the county public defender Fire invades Yosemite canpn It may be a threat to Hetch Hetchy By Lynn Ludlow Of 1HE EXAMMER STAF7 An obstinate fire crackled Thursday through more than 1,100 acres of virgin timber between the granite walls of Yosemite National Park's best-kept secret the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne a few miles upstream from the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. The reservoir supplies drinking water to San Francisco and about 30 other Bay Area water agencies through a 160-mile aqueduct from the Tuolumne River watershed in the drought-dried Sierra Nevada. Strone winds in the remote can yon hampered firefighters. In California's other major. blaze, a fire above Shel ter Cove in Humboldt County, winds were absorbed Thursday in the huge fog bank that cloaked the coastline from south of nearby Cape Mendocino.

Two other small fires were doused Wednesday in Yosemite National Park, but park Ranger Mallory Smith said strong winds sent sparks from the burning red cedars and pines among the water falls and cascades of the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne and its tributary, Piute Creek. "The fire spread in very rough terrain," she said. "It's on the ledges on the north wall of the can yon in the Piute Creek area." She said it isn't yet known what impact the fire might have on the reservoir's water quality. Firefighters put out a second fire that threatened another of San Francisco's mountain reservoirs, Lake Eleanor, which is twinned with Lake Lloyd in the Cherry Creek watershed to the south of Hetch Hetchy. Smith said the six- acre blaze was controlled by Wednesday night Two other was a three-acre grass fire near Yosemite Lodge that was investigated as possible arson.

About 125 firefighters battled the main fire about six miles from the head waters where the main stem of the Tuolumne River pours into the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. Smith said the National Park 'let-it-bum" policy doesnt apply because the baize is near the canyon's hiking trails. In Humboldt County, where thkk fog is a routine aspect of climate along the coast, it was never so welcome aa when it blotted out a Graduate Gemotogists (NIOMOST4TAMID SJ 17 K- turoptan diimi crystal in Amerka. REGISTRY Son Ham at (415) 421-6862 mmmmmmmist. Diamonds Direct from the Importer at Wholesale Prices Top Quality Diamonds available Loose or Mounted See Our Factory Showroom at Union Square for Latest Style Diamond Ring Mountings and Engagement Sets at 50 Below Retail Call for information on diamond prices DIRECT DIAMOND Appointments Suggested the sight of flames on the ridge lines.

Called the Saddle Fire, had grown to 4,000 acres by Thursday morning in the Kings Range Conservation Area. It's in a wilderness so inaccessible that local folks call it the Lost Coast Backfires were set Wednesday to create a "black line" to halt the out-of-control blaze as winds up to 40 miles an hour whipped it southward." The winds died Thursday amid the fog. It came as a considerable relief to residents of about 140 homes in the promotional subdivision that was sold off to absentee investors 20 years ago by a Southern California developer. Late Wednesday night Shirley Machi, who with her husband operates Mario's Marina Bar here, said the information they'd gotten by CB radio from the fire scene was that the backfire had been very successful and that the fire was well under control in the area where a threat to the town might come from. More than 700 firefighters are battling the fire that apparently started Sunday in the conservation area.

Fire crews have cut about six miles of fire lines around the blaze, leaving three more miles to go. But the fire was only 15 percent contained, and full containment wasn't expected until sometime Saturday. It was unknown when firefighters expected to control the fire. The Associated Press contribut ed to this report Maker attacks state plan to list pesticide McCLATCHY NEWS SERVICE SACRAMENTO The mak era of a highly toxic pesticide used heavily throughout the San Joa quin Valley since the 1940s have protested a state plan to declare it a "toxic air contaminant If ethyl parathion is banned, it would make the suspected carcino gen the first chemical to fall under a recent law directing the state to list dangerous airborne agents. The state Department of Food and Agriculture is recommending the chemical be declared a toxic air contaminant.

Each year, about 462,000 pounds of ethyl parathion are used by farmers in Fresno, Kern, Madera, Merced, Stanislaus, San Joaquin and Tulare counties to kill bugs that attack orchards and crt rus, grape, leaf and vegetable crops. Representatives for the farm in dustry and the manufacturer agreed the chemical is tone The limits of science Before the meeting, plant man-ager Bill Morris said: "A lot of the- (tense) situation exists up here cause people have been made aware of the problem but not given any answers." Goldman defended the health department's investigation. "We're pushing on the limits of what sci-A ence can do for us," she said. In literature handed out before v. the meeting, the department said it, may issue a warning against eating.

chickens, eggs and beef raised any- A where in Oroville because of possi-A ble widespread contamination by dioxin. The Brookses were among 28'" families whose chicken eggs were tested by the state. Twelve house-' holds were notified that their eggs contained elevated dioxin levels. Tests of the Brooks eggs detecr. ted 31.9 parts per trillion of dioxin more than sue times the 5- parts-per-trillion level that federal health officials consider hazardous' to humans.

In March, Brooks said in purP lished reports she suspected the fire caused more contamination than reported. "Seven of our ducks died' the day after the fire, and two of our geese," she said. "I'm We've been eating eggs all And we ate from our garden after. the fire, because officials said ev- erything was fine." "I think it's all been shoved under the rug," Dan Brooks said Tuesday. On the advice of an attor-' ney, he said he couldnt discuss the- circumstances of his wife's death.

"It was respiratory," he said. Brooks took his wife to the hosv pital early Sunday after she com--. -plained of having difficulty breath- ing, said neighbor Herb Hours: lues -sat 210 Post Strtet, Smite 502 San Francisco, CA 94I0S (415) 397-9400 81 SIX FOR 8149.00 Six brilliant jewel colors in crystal wine hocks from Bavaria Emerald, Ruby, Amethyst, Amber, Cobalt and Peridot whose eggs, chickens and beef test- ed positive for dioxin. Wednesday to succeed Steven Av White as head of the Tennessee' Valley Authority's nuclear gram. White, 59, has run TVA's nucle- ar program since January 1986, five, months after the federal utility, shut down its five-reactor system because of safety and management concerns.

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