The Capital Times from Madison, Wisconsin • 50

fr wwh" T'y WALL STREET JOURNAL Study Says Oil Is Poison By JACK ANDERSON On the other side of the globe in the Caspian Sea, a combination of petroleum pollution and a drop in the water level has reduced the annual fishing catch from more than GOO million pounds to about 240 million. WASHINGTON A highly confidential scientific study describes how oil wastes have poisoned sea life, jeopardized commercial fishing, tarred beaches and made an open sewer of the seven seas. The 405-page document, prepared by the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, disputes the oil industrys massive advertising claims that petroleum production wont cause environmental damage. On each of the 100 numbered copies, the academy has stamped; This is a working draft for internal use only, and it bears no official endorsement Not for Publication DO NOT QUOTE OR CITE. But already, the academy has deleted a crucial section on the cancer threat from oil dumping.

Scientists from Shell and Chevron oil companies will help prepare the final report Therefore, we have decided to publish the findings before they are watered down. THE STUDY shows that more than five million tons of oil wastes are dumped in the ocean each year by tankers, offshore industries, municipal oil users and oil-spilling motorboat engines. The pro-oil scientists lobbied in the secret sessions, we have learned, to emphasize the natural seepage of urban auto wastes, which are washed into rivers and carried out to sea. The strategy was to minimize Big Oils sea fouling. Jack Anders The oil companies have responded to the protests of environmentalists by touting the Louisiana story.

Offshore oil derricks, the companies allege, have actually increased sea life in the Gulf of Mexico. The fishing catches, its true, haven't diminished. But the report suggests this is because the fishermen often have shifted locations. Meanwhile, the 25,000 wells and other oil operations have dumped 1.1 million barrels of oil in the Gulf, tainting the oysters with oily odors and tastes. Oil company canaling and dredging have also let salt water pour into the coastal marshes which eventually destroys oyster and shrimp breeding.

THE TIME period that the Louisiana fisheries can withstand these alterations is not known, states the report. Only the amazing ability of oysters and shrimp to' reproduce under adverse conditions have kept fishing alive in Louisiana, the report suggests. Im going to tell them that the world is theirs. That ought to scare the hell out of them. Although this section was weakened even before it got in draft form, it still shows 8,000 oil spills a year in U.S.

waters alone, almost all of it in coastal waters. THESE ACCIDENTAL spills, bilge flushings and other oil discharges are killing off birdlife, threatening entire species with extinction. Certain penguins, ducks and other seabirds are disappearing, the report warns. These birds, it explains, spend most of their lives on the surface of the sea. dive in response to disturbances, and if they dive on encountering floating oil, they become completely coat ed.

Because these gregarious birds flock together, a small oil slick (can cause very large casualties, declares the report. One colony of guillemots (was) reduced by 250,000 in two years, and razorbills which were once numerous are now extinct as breeders. A poignant passage in the report describes how mother birds coated with oil tried pathetically to hatch eggs but unwittingly covered the eggs with oil. This weakens or kills the baby birds as they are being hatched. BIRDS THAT lay only a few eggs canot make up for the losses caused by oil.

On British coasts, according to the study, 90 per cent of stranded guillemots have been oiled. Their corpses are washed upon the beaches along a few miles of British coastline. anything. I'm clean as a hound's tooth and everyone lays everything on me. Houses have feelings, too.

This is ridiculous, I told the White House. No one is blaming you for anything that went on there. As far as most people are concerned, youre a pillar of the community. Maybe, the voice replied, but the other night I heard Dan Rather say on television that the White House planned to stonewall the House Judiciary Committee. Ive never stonewalled anyone in my life.

Then John Chancellor said the White House decided to hang tough against special prosecutor Jaworski. How can a house hang tough? I see what you mean. IVE HAD A LOT of people live in me; some have been good and some have been bad, but it says right in the lease I am not responsible for anything they do. All Im supposed to do is provide shelter from the elements and keep up a good facade. Now everyone is throwing stones at me.

THE CAPITAL TIMES Founded in 1917 by William MILES McMILLIN, Editor and Publisher ELLIOTT MARAN1SS, Executive Editor ROBERT MELOON, Managing Editor This Is Your White House Speaking MADISON, Friday, May 31, 1974 Impeachment Politics The study details how oil slicks and spills poison sea life. The hydrocarbons invade nerve tissue spinal cord esp-cially. Mullet exposed to oil suddenly suffer strange fat deposits in their liver. Other fish simply smother or die of shock. No more than two-cycle outboard motor affluent, the study found, caused fish to begin gasping after 24 hours.

LOBSTERS IN polluted waters produced tainted eggs which taste like paraffin. The oily waters could also spoil the lobster meat, causing tainting of the white meat, of the tail and finally the claw meat in the most severe cases of pollution, says the report. Another oil company myth demolished by the report is the cheery talk of cleaning up oil spills. The study shows that mechanical means, although usually safe, are often ineffective. But the ballyhooed dispersants, which seem to make oil disappear, can cause even worse damage than the oil.

The dispersants may make it easy for marine animals to ingest the oil into their systems. Dispersants may also pollute fresh water or even brackish water longer and with greater danger than oil. When the Torrey Canyon gushed oil into the sea, it was the dispersants that did much of the damage. You're an easy target for every reporter in this town. Well, Im staying here, the voice said, even if whats-his-name gets impeached.

Good gravy, just the other day I saw a headline in a newspaper which said White House Announces New Rise in Cost of Living. I did no such thing. Why would I be stupid enough to announce something like that? Look, Im busy, I said. What do you want from me? I thought you could use a column, he said chortling. Take any one on the front porch you want.

Very funny, I said, but Ive been sucked in by the White House one too many times. There, cried the voice, even youre doing it. I'm sorry, I said, but dont forget one thing. When you became the White House, we never promised you a Rose Garden. Copyright, Los Angeles Times the experiment on its merits.

It is fair to say that the limited test in question produced no conclusive results. Indeed, other research in its area has reached different conclusions. New scientific findings are welcome, but they should be well based experimentally and their real value can be determined only by careful review. It can be stated with confidence that margarine is a nutritious and healthful food, widely recommended by Scientists, physicians and nutritionists as a part of the daily diet. S.F.

Riepma, president, National Association of Margarine Art Buchwald It does seem unfair that the media has played loose with you, I said, but Im certain it was just an oversight. The voice was trembling. I can understand it when they talk about the Pentagon. Thats a bad building. When they say the Pentagon asked for $100 billion, naturally people are going to get sore.

Or when the Pentagon admits to an overrun on a nuclear aircraft carrier. But Ive never done anything like that. All Ive ever done is hold receptions, entertain tourists and pose for pictures. Why doesnt the media ever write about that? I GUESS ITS YOUR location, I said. not hate? Celebrate life and not death? Sharon Winderl, Chairperson, Madison Branch, Womens International League for Peace and Freedom Margarine President: Margarine Is Healthful (Washington, D.C.) Margarine is not and has not been found to be a health hazard as a wire service story in the Times of Apr.

12 reports. The story had to do with a single experiment dealing with special fat composition diets fed to pigs. Since the story appeared, it has been possible to examine i of the people THERE IS nothing subtle about President Nixons unseemly haste to capitalize on the disengagement agreement between Syria and Israel. Even though the guns were still firing, the President went before the White House press corps to announce a major diplomatic achievement hammered out by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. The world will breathe a collective sigh of relief if Mr.

Nixons overblown hyperbole proves to be correct. But he can no more assure peace in the embattled Middle East than can the Kremlin, for both sides are pouring billions of dollars worth of arms into Israeli and Arab military depots. No outsider can impose peace in the area. MONTHS AGO the White House, with a calculated eye on the House impeachment calendar, arranged for Mr. Nixon to fly to Russia in late June.

Now, the President is reportedly packing his suitcases for a hurry-up trip to the Middle East within the next few weeks. Impeachment, not international accord, is fading the haste for the visit. The trip is a bald design to convince doubting Congressmen who will be smothered with television reports of the Presidents triumphant travels through the Middle East. A Presidential aide while insisting that impeachment poli- T. Evjue, 1882-1970 DAVE ZWEIFEL, City Editor JOHN P.

HUNTER, Assoeiate Editor JERRY AMBELANG, State Editor tics is not being played acknowledged that Mideast developments could well make some Congressmen realize that foreign policy successes of this administration which, as the President said, have brought us closer to peace in the Mideast than at any time in the past generation. IT IS NOT difficult to recall both Nixon and Kissinger telling the world a year ago that peace had finally been restored to Vietnam. Not only is a full-scale war still going on, but the United States is pouring hundreds of millions in arms into Saigon to prop up a military regime. We do not know what Kissinger promised either Israel or Syria, but there are distressing indications that we have agreed that any Israeli retaliation for attacks of terror would be understood by Washington. This is an admission of the obvious fact that only Egypt in the Arab bloc can control acts of terrorism by the guerrilla groups within their borders.

We will probably find out the cost of this thing before we find out the terms of the agreement. And we will be paying the Arabs as well as the Israelis. The canny experts on Wall Street recognized what went on in Jerusalem and Damascus. The stock market dropped 19 points, most of it after the announcement of the accord. They know it will mean more taxes, more inflation, and no doubt an increase in the price of oil.

immediate family would be required to list business connections in firms in which more than 2 per cent of the outstanding stock is held; creditors to whom more than $3,000 is owed; the identity of all stocks, bonds, debentures and other forms of debt obligations of any corporation or business in excess of the identity of non-owner occupied real estate within the city, and the identity of employers and positions of employment. CERTAINLY such generalized information ought to be available to the public. We think any meaningful disclosure plan ought to require the total amount as well as the identity of stocks, bonds, etc. and the amount of stock held in a business. We hope an attempt is made to restore these requirements to the By ART BUCHWALD WASHINGTON I was walking past the White House the other night when I heard this voice.

Damn media. Who's speaking? I asked in fright. Im speaking, said the voice. Im the White House. Dont kid me, I said.

Buildings cant talk. Oh yeah, the voice said. Then why do you people keep writing The White House said today it wasnt going to hand over any more tapes or The White House denied accepting any Howard Hughes money to finance the election? Thats just a figure of speech, I said. Everyone knows were not talking about the White Haase were talking about the people in it. ITS EASY FOR YOU to say that.

But if you were sitting where Im sitting you wouldnt think it was funny. I havent done VOICE Swanson Says CCC Wrong on MATC (Madison) As an MATC instructor, I have to disagree strongly with the Capital Community Citizens. Frankly I think Community Citizens are shooting from the hip without much understanding of the MATC expansion problem. First, the Flad report for expansion isnt a pie-in-the-sky plan. It has stages built into it to protect against over-expansion.

Community Citizens apparently havent taken the time to read that report or they would have noted such protection. Second, Community Citizens has assumed that the school wants a suburban site, now that the tech center site appears questionable. Its hardly fair to assume that since the District Four board hasnt said a word about anything suburban. A suburban site is an alternative, but why jump to conclusions? Third, Community Citizens rests its case for no MATC expansion on population statistics. Population decline is a factor, but the real factor in expansion is the shift of people away from universities to technical schools.

That shift has already stuffed our classrooms and created situations of hundreds of high school grads applying for 25 or 30 openings in our programs. With projections that 70 to 80 per cent of all jobs opening up in the decade will be technological, this trend is going to continue. Fourth, Community Citizens say that outreach programs can be utilized more to do away with facility crowding. Aside from the fact that outreach is already being used in the school extensively, outreach has its limits which Community Citizens conveniently ignore. We are training technologists, as I pointed out, and that means we have to have sophisticated labs and instructors to do the job.

Where in the community, for instance, can our students learn automotive mechanics skills as well as they can in our fully-equipped shops, staffed by full-time concerned, and highly trained instructors? Can Community Citizens guarantee both technological exper- Citys Disclosure Plan tise and excellent teaching through outreach? I doubt if they can. Finally, Community Citizens claim that MATC should merely take over vacant buildings or classroom downtown; that it doesnt matter if the school is a patchwork quilt of facilities. Thats the cheap way, therefore the right way, right? Wrong! The principle of a unified campus rests on the idea that technologists should rub elbows with liberal arts students so that both can learn from one another. We believe that technology cant go its own way any more than eggheads should reside in ivory towers. That kind of thinking leads to technological solutions for Vietnam and the notion that environmental problems are purely academic in nature.

MATCs philosophy says its good if people with theoretical ideas interact withi people who have manual skills. Education such as that may be more expensive than Community Citizens want, but in the long run its probably a bargain since it means our survival as a society. Richard Swanson Winderl Finds More to Remember on Holiday (Madison) We have just read the Memorial Day Program sponsored by the City of Madison. We question its narrow concept Memorial Day: to honor and remember our dead veterans. Yes, but that is not enough.

Looking back in sorrow is a betrayal of their sacrifices, unless we resolve to protect our young people from the fate which killed, maimed and brutalized in past wars. Is it possible we have learned little from the recent past? The Vietnam War continues as fiercely as ever. Why? We pay for it. Political prisoners in Chile and South Vietnam are jailed with our compliance. Our taxes oil a luxurious military machine while half the world starves.

MEMORIAL DAY; A Time To Reflect and Dedicate Ourselves To Peace NEXT TUESDAY the City Council is scheduled to debate a revised financial disclosure ordinance. Although it is less embracing than an earlier proposal, it deserves the support of the Council. Revised by Aid. Michael Ley, 16th District, who authored the original proposal, the disclosure ordinance is co-sponsored by Mayor Paul Soglin. Four other council sponsors include Elizabeth Smith, Michael Christopher, Leonard Knutson and Roy Waldren.

The plan would require the mayor, council members, school board members and candidates for those offices each to file a statement of economic interest. Other filers would include city department and division heads and their supervisory assistants. The filer and members of his Tm glad you like my overalls, but I have a confession to make Ive never done a day's work in my life!" Can we plant and not poison? Love and J-.