The Kansas City Times from Kansas City, Missouri • 48

Friday December 6 1968 Clearing the Seas of Spilled Oil (ibr Kansas (City (times (The Morning Kansas City Star) The Kansaa City Star Company Owner and Publisher MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 'iei-'Se -Vr 'h The Associated Press exclusively is entitled to use for republicstion of all local news published herein as weM as all AP dispatches THE FUTURE IN SPACE WILL CHECK TO NIXON them the new President will acquire title to a program shaped by his predecessors and put on it his own lasting stamp GREAT PUBLIC BENEFIT IN THE COMBS-ELLIS GIFT in areas where use of aircraft may not be considered feasible large scale applications of Corexit can be made from workboats using spray booms The dispersant sprayed from WHEN he takes office in January Richard Nixon will inherit a space program that could be on the threshold of its most brilliant triumph or shrouded in the glum aftermath of its most tragic but whose future in either case will be very much in question planned December 21 flight of Apollo 8 whose mission outline calls for a possible Christmas eve entry into lunar orbit will be the National Aeronautics and Space administration last bold venture during the Johnson presidency If it succeeds all eyes will be turned ahead to a probable manned moon landing attempt sometime before the end of Mr first year in the White House If Apollo 8 and any major breakdown once the ship is committed on its course to the moon would almost certainly have dire consequences for the then it will be the newly-inaugurated President's unhappy duty to preside over a traumatized nation and over a space agency necessarily torn by recrimination and self-doubt But whatever December holds whether exhilaration or gloom it will be entirely the result of decisions made by men other than Nixon himself So for that matter will next planned lunar landing a goal set forth by John Kennedy early in this decade For none of this can the President-elect accept either credit or blame The die is cast and Nixon like any other American is really only a paying spectator to the great adventure But beyond the immediate future of the Apollo program large decisions remain to be made And these will belong inescapably to the next President nozzles with considerable force mixes with the oil "cleaning" the slick THE gift from Mrs Loula Long Combs and Mrs Sally Long Ellis of a 146-acre tract for the south campus of Metropolitan Junior College-Kansas City can only be described as magnificent The generosity of Mrs Ellis and Mrs Combs is in the best tradition of a philanthropy that will promote the education of tens of thousands of young persons for decades to come For Metropolitan Junior College-Kansas City the splendid donation hardly could have been made at a more propitious time The board of trustees has approved the purchase of land for the northern or Clay County campus and property for the central site opposite Penn Valley park is being assembled Thus the district after all its problems of recent years is moving with accelerated speed toward the reality of the 3-campus system that the people have waited for so patiently Now through the farsighted disposition of very valuable land by Mrs Combs and Mrs Ellis Metropolitan Junior college has the site for its south campus Not only will the gift let the college use its own revenue for other purposes it undoubtedly has saved time and advanced the schedule And at the moment time is a matter of urgency for the college The building at Thirty-ninth and McGee leased from the Kansas City school district apparently will not be available next fall Temporary structures on existing property and other short-term solutions will be necessary to take care of enrollments that are growing at a pace far in advance of facilities Metropolitan Junior College-Kansas City is headed toward a potential student body of 27000 in slightly more than a decade It will provide academic and vocational opportunities not now available in sufficient volume to the young people of this region The Combs-Ellis grant has moved the timetable forward It stands as one of the most important and beneficial acts of public-spirited generosity to occur in the Kansas City area for many years action or from the a boat churning through to be dispersed A light helicopter fitted with spray booms proved equally Effective in getting the chemieal onto the oil it provided the aF ditional advantage of immediate surface disturbance of thd water caused by the downdraft from its rotors The effect was: soon apparent As the helicopter made passes over the dark iridescent stain of heavy crude-oil spraying as it went swaths of clear blue-green sea were left in its path Work Boat Sprays Oil The most striking difference from a visual standpoint came en a work boat began' to spray the oil Equipped with' special spray booms extending out on either side of the boat the small tug-like craft plowed through the slick Because thfe dispersant was sprayed from-the nozzles with considerable force it hit the oil with its own mixing energy When the resulting mixture was further agitated by the bow wave and propeller clear wr-ter appeared where oil had been only seconds before The aircraft used in these demonstrations could carry only limited quantities of Corexit In order to cope with practically any size of oil spill efforts are now under way to develop far greater carrying capacity One such development currently under study is a large amphibian aircraft specially modified for spraying nil slicks It can carry 12000 pounds of fifteen times the payload of a small spray plane and it combines long range with the flexibility to operate on land or sea No one method of application provides a complete all-purpose answer to the problem Attacking any spill demands coordinate effort: the right chemical in the right place in the right quantity applied with the right equipment Worldwide Distribution Distribution of the dispersant is now worldwide and neW manufacturing and storage -points are being set up in key locations to ensure that adequate supplies are available not only to Jersey and its affiliates but also to all involved in the marine transportation of oil The prevention of oil spillage is of course of prime importance Jersey Standard has adopted a code which requires that its tankers must not pump oily tank-washing or ballast water overboard even in those areas usually at least fifty miles out to sea that have been officially designated as permissible for such operations This voluntary code takes care of the problems of spillage that can be controlled Furthermore training center for tanker captains near Grenoble France assures safer handling of the huge supertankers that are now under construction in shipyards around the world And yet it would be unrealistic to assume that disasters will not occur again in the future Oil is found in areas remote from the places where it is con-s this means that throughout the ycr billions of barrels of oil are in transit day and night chiefly in tankers on the high seas 1948 Standard Oil Company of New Jersavi The following is reprinted from the winter issue of the Lamp magazine By Edward Gant IN March 1967 the supertanker Torrey ironically named after one of the largest oil finds in the history of ran aground and split open off southwest coast Her cargo of 850000 barrels of crude oil spewed from the wreck and drifted toward the beaches of Cornwall and Brittany There had been no precedent for a disaster of this magnitude and there was no precedent for its treatment The authorities with no proven methods for cleaning up such a mess tried many things including concentrated spraying with detergents Despite afl efforts large quantities of oil drifted ashore doing damage to wildlife and miles of white sandy beaches Months later in nearby Plymouth a highly significant postmortem was carried out at the United Kingdom Marine Biological laboratory The extent of damage to marine life was painfully assessed and it was concluded that the toxic detergents used in the attempt to clean up the spilled cargo were more lethal than the oil itself A report was prepared giving details of how the balance of nature in the sea had been upset and calling for a new approach in treating oil spillages New Approach Available Less than two years later a new approach was available Scientists at Esso Research and Engineering laboratories at Florham Park had begun an intensive search for a nontoxic but effective oil dispersant before the Torrey Canyon went aground That disaster gave the project even greater priority The aim was to find a material that would hasten the natural spreading of an oil slick so that wave action could break it into minute droplets which would remain in suspension until they were destroyed by natural largely by bacterial action The result of this search was a water-soluble amber-colored fluid called Corexit 7664 Tests showed that when this dispersant was sprayed on the oil it broke up the slick and with the aid of mixing action created by waves it completely dispersed the resulting emulsion of tiny oil droplets As soon as the first indications of effectiveness became apparent a series of toxicity tests involving various species of marine life began Fish were subjected to the chemical mixed with ordinary sea water usually in concentrations stronger than any that would occur during actual treatment of an oil slick on the open sea The findings indicated that even the most concentrated application of Corexit would not adversely affect fish or other sea life Similar Research in Miami Similar research is being conducted at the Institute of Marine Science in Miami and shrimp which are particularly sensitive to any pollutants in the water are checked constantly for their reactions to controlled amounts of Corexit for exact periods of time Not only is there no apparent ill effect on the marine life but equally important the fish continue to consume oxygen at the same rate as they do in water that contains no dispersant Even barnacles are not ignored and polygraph studies show that this lowly but tellingly sensitive organism goes about its normal feeding habits in a mixture of Corexit and water just as it would in untreated sea water Research is now being carried out to determine the long-range effects on ma rine life of combinations of oil and Corexit While laboratory work was proceeding beyond its initial phase an event took place that underlined the urgency attached to the full-scale development and marketing of Corexit In March 1968 the tanker General Colocotronis went aground on a coral reef off Eleuthera island in the Bahamas and lost one quarter of its cargo some 27000 barrels of oil through a gaping slash in its bottom Conduct Test Although the fact that even a tiny amount of Corexit would disperse many types of oil had been established this incident provided an opportunity to test its effectiveness under field conditions The answers obtained from this first emergency case of the product confirmed the growing belief that it was ready for distribution The oil ci the surface of the sea when the chemical was applied and mixed by the wave action was immediately dispersed and subsequent analyses of marine organisms along the shoreline by biologists showed no toxic reactions Eleuthera had been a good initial test and the indications ere encouraging The opportunity to conduct a second field test was to come less than a month later Near the end of j-pril of this year the tanker Esso Essen hit an underwater obstruction off the coast of Africa and almost immediately released about 30000 barrels of crude oil on the water This time 300 barrels of Corexit were shipped by air to a nearby point When a team trained in applying the dispersant arrived some oil had already reached the shore and oil slicks extended over an area roughly fifteen miles long and three miles wide about three miles off the beaches Dispersant Was Sprayed Using light planes equipped with crop-spraying booms under each wing the dispersant was sprayed onto the oil (Boats standing by to assist in the operation could not be used because of heavy seas) By the end of the second day of graying the oil had been almost completely dispersed leaving only isolated patches to be attacked the following day In aH 100 barrels of Corexit were used and the operation was an unqualified success Subsequent water samplings as well as observations both during and after spraying indicated no change in water conditions and no adverse effect on marine life Further confirmation of the effectiveness of the dispersant came on the heels of the Esso Essen accident Two days after the final survey flight to make sure all the oil had been eliminated in that spill the Greek tanker Andron sank off the west coast of Africa Again a team was mobilized and again the job was done In both instances it was vividly demonstrate that a task force could rapidly go into action and that the proper use of Corexit constituted a valuable tool for quick removal of oil slicks at sea All told only about 260 barrels of dispersant were used in cleaning up both accidents It has been estimated that one gallon of Corexit was all that was needed to disperse from 50 to 100 gallons of oil in these situations These accidental spillages had provided much needed iny formation on the action of the dispersant under actual emergency conditions What remained was to demonstrate various means by which the product might be applied to an oil slick The small Caribbean island of Aruba was selected for large-scale field demonstrations because exceptionally clear water and abundant marine life in both protected areas and the open ocean made it ideal for such testing and for recording the esults on film Several different methods of staying dispersant on oil slicks were employed in Aruba As had been done in Africa single-engine aircraft normally used as crop sprayers were loaded with Corexit and flown a few feet over oil-laden water A heavy mist of dispersant drifted down onto the oil from nozzles along the wings and the treated oil then required only from wind and wave NEW SOVIET WHEAT EXPORTS AFFECT FARMERS IN the rise of other urgent and costly priorities the financing of the Vietnam war and the demands of the complex of problems related to urban space research has slipped from its once glittering place in the limelight of public attention Funding has declined steadily from a high of nearly 6 billion dollars two years ago to 4 billion in the current year Apollo has suffered little partly because of the competitive aspect of the -Russian moon race and partly because many of the heaviest expenditures in the lunar program already were made before the atrophy set in Beyond the moon however in the fields of deep space research and planetary exploration the cuts have been severe across the board Whole programs have been scrapped entirely though already on the drawing board Some dedicated space scientists have accused budget-makers of abdicating planetary space to the Russians whose current research in regions beyond the moon is proceeding on a vigorous schedule Other advocates say that by limiting its vision to the essentially dead-ended goal of a moon landing the would risk wasting all of the new technology that has been bought by the investment of some 30 billion dollars in the space program to date There is validity in these points But there is validity also in the argument that the needs of decaying cities and of millions of disadvantaged Americans must be addressed that the onerous costs of the Asian war must be met that outer space is not the only arena and perhaps not the most important one in which the should express its character as a nation Mr Nixon has said that he regards the space program as of our national and as an activity that deserves sufficient support to assure and steady But how pressing an imperative? What rate of progress? Basic judgments of priority will very soon be required In making (BiblsL UsJlASL $DJl JodaJL Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy Psalm 119:18 IT was an astonishing development in the fall of 1963 and early in 1964 when the Soviet Union began to import wheat on a large scale even buying from the United States Traditionally the Russians had been exporters The sudden switch suggested that the Soviets were failing in agriculture and feed their own people Later it was confirmed that crop failures had occurred and that the Soviet rulers were forced to change policies in agriculture But current information indicates that Moscow has emerged from its period of production deficits Once again Soviet farm exports are on the rise The International Federation of Agricultural Producers reports that Soviet wheat exports in 1967 nearly doubled over those of the previous year Sunflower seed exports doubled and sunflower oil shipments increased by 50 per cent The Soviet Union still is buying some wheat from Canada under the terms of a long-time deal But apparently the pressure that existed a few years ago is gone The wheat transaction with Russia in 1964 was a arrangement The fact that Russia now is an exporter and is buying less has only an indirect effect on this country However wheat which Canada Australia France or Argentina sell to Russia becomes available for trade elsewhere and therefore bids against the product around the world Thus the United States is up against increased competition created by the Soviet Union which apparently is reverting to its previous position as an exporter Moscow's agricultural comeback makes it more difficult for the American farmer as he sets about selling his wheat abroad Gets Here First Has to Clean Up All This Junk' that detergents used in the attempt to clean up the spilled cargo of It was discovered the Torrey Canyon in is shown after it had 1967 were more lethal to marine life than the oil itself The tanker run aground and split open off Land's End England Nashs Rhyme Stands Test of Time daughter and two of his grandchildren and incidentally to mark the recent publication of his 14th book of verse Titled Always Another and issued by Little Brown it contains 101 verses tion come more slowly other things take my time and I get terrified by a blank piece of paper on my desk and verses seem His mood these days is one of wistful gaiety he said summed up in Sunset Years of Samuel a verse in his new book Part of it reads: Master I may be But not of my fate Now comes the kisses too many too late Tell me Parcae For fain would I know FORTY YEAR'S AGO By John Doohan The Librarian From The Star of Dec 6 1928 Police and election boards in Kansas City will be freer of politics than under any administration in many years it is planned by incoming governor Henry Caulfield The governor said he would not be hurried into decisions concerning Kansas City appointees 7 Oil-mad Wichita went even wilder today when the fourth well in the new field was brought in on the Lyon farm five miles north of the city After obtaining a view of England and the English people as a newspaperman may see them Henry Haskell has returned to Kansas City from one year in England as a junior under the Walter Hines Page Newspaper Fellowship (Mr Haskell former associate editor of The Star retired this year John Lee London telegraph official in Kansas City today says he would like to place a wreath on a monument to Al-mon Strowger the obscure Kansas City inventor who devised the automatic telephone (There is as yet no monument Or memorial to Mr Strowger) The printing industry of the world faces a great revolutionizing influence through an invention initiated by Frank Gannett publisher of the Gannett newspapers and Walter Morey of East Orange This invention known as a teletypesetter will set type telegraph and will increase the production of the Linotype and Intertype typesetting machines The Kansas City Pla-Mor hockey team continues to lead the league with a 3-0-1 record By skating 436 hours Don Woolery won the marathon skating contest prize of $600 at Convention hall John Gicante was second and Phil Thomas third my field At least comments by a minor idiot or maybe a major he explained in a throaty chuckle Nash said he regarded himself as a commentator or essayist in rhyme on man and manners The humor is provided by the human race by he said adding that of my most amusing thoughts have come to me in my gloomiest moments about all the self-analysis indulge he continued firmly self-analysis usually ends up in poopery in being a stuffed Fixing his mind on humor Nash said that he was not very keen about most of it much of it is he said stirring his coffee for emphasis the inventing of ridiculous situations as if someone sat down and said it be funny if a beautiful millionaire lady inherited a and patterned the humor to fit me unnatural Humor always goes back to the human race and its everlasting BUT HUMOR has to be honed by the humorist Nash said and it becomes more difficult with age His banner year was 1935 when he indited 135 verses but now 20 a year is a big produc By Alden Whitman 1968 Nw York Times News Service) NE is dandybut liquor is wrote Ogden Nash in 1931 in the days when young people were turned on by nothing stronger than alcohol Updating his quatrain this week to the world of the 1960s he added the line is still true that is the 63-year-old humorist-in-verse insisted over luncheon the days of the Gibson girl candy was the sure icebreaker between the sexes Later it was liquor which makes its drinkers nicely social But pot do that I hear too individual old-fashioned enough so that I like to think still liquor that ripens WHEN HE struck off the verse he was not trying to be profound Nash recalls just bobbed into my mind as did some other eipgrams suggested by the social milieu of 35 years ago is and the Vanitiesno one wears Some of these observations have remained true as the candy one he continued laughing and some are obviously out-of-date as the one about Round of face and generous of girth Nash resembles Mencken in a jolly mood He was in town from his winter home in city of Baltimore (he summers in North Hampton H) to visit his "I've written more than a thousand verses for publication" says Ogden Nash "It's an awful thing to contemplate" WRITTEN more than 1000 verses for he said puffing on a cigarette and peering through black-rimmed spectacles an awful thing to contemplate deal in great social he went on minor idiocies of humanity are Eldon Mo Surrounding towns are all becoming centers of something or the other The idea man in the Boosters sees a great chance here to make us the Center of the Centers The complaint is heard again that rural immigration adds to urban difficulties Rural migration is their term we call it brain drain Being of the over-30 generation the phaeton is declared a special dispensation case and the car inspection folks have agreed to make a house call So many dissident students these days Grandpa and in his youth the subject even offered Tom Eilerts ON THE CITY DUMP Broken bits of glass sparkle like diamonds if there's sun bright enough Scott Miner i.