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Show OLYMPIC PROBE NBA DRAFT RACEHORSE CENTRAL Deadline for charges postponed B-1 Point guards run deep C-1 Utahraises them, but can’t bet on them E-1 he Salt Lake Gri 3 une http://www.sltrib.com Utah’s Independent Voice Since 1871 Volume 26° Number 72 ©2000, The Salt Lake Tribune uth Ma Telephone nu SUNDAY, JUNE 25, 2000 Poll Indicates Republican Primary Will Goto Leavitt, Cook Is in Trouble © 2000, THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE 1 Candidates makingtheir finalpush Bet Utah Republicans,with a little help from marauding Democrats and independents, appear ready to re-elect their governor to a third term and to dumponeoftheirsitting congressmen in the party’s primaryelection Tuesday. Challenger Derek Smith leads Merrill and 28 percent undecided. Six percent had someoneelse in mind. The margin of error in the Valley Research poll is plus or minus 4.8 percentage points. The 2nd District is roughly the eastern Cook inthe contentious contestfor the seat in Utah’s 2nd Congressional District, ac- three-quartersof Salt Lake County. In the general election, Matheson has a narrowlead, virtually a dead heat, against Cook, 41 percent to 39 percent, among Republican primaryvoters, with 18 percent unwilling to make a decision atthis point. But against Smith, Matheson wins 41 percent to 35 percent, with 23 percentof the re- cording to an independent Salt Lake Tri- bune survey conducted this past week, whichalso indicates both candidates face a battle royal against Democrat Jim Matheson in November's general election. The canvassof418 registered 2ndDistrict voters who said they intended to vote in Tuesday's Republican primary shows Smith asthe favorite of 40 percentofthe respondents, Cook with 26 percent of the vote spondents unsure. In the governor's primary, incumbent Mike Leavitt is heavily favored over challenger Glen Davis in a separate statewide poll of 429 registered voters who said they intended to participate in the GOP primary. Leavitt received 64 percent to Davis’ 19 percent. About 17 percent were undecided or liked somebody else. The marginoferror was 4.8 percentagepoints. Tribune Poll poll, however. 61 percent to 25 percent. with 14 percent undecided. Both surveys show some Democratic in. terference in the GOP primary. which is open to anyregistered voter. Of those who said theyintended to vote in Tuesday’s pri- Of those answering the statewide and mary, 15 percent listed themselves as Dem- congressional district surveys, about three mostlyof Republican voters andreflects only a fractionof the potential Democratic vote. ocrats. The remaining called themselves independents or minor-party supporters There are nofederal orstate primary con tests among Democratic candidates. About half of those registered voters Whenpaired against Democratic guber- contacted by Valley Research said they in five labeled themselves Republican. Thus, the general election face-off data consist natorial candidate Bill Orton in the November generalelection, Davis loses to Or- would be voting Tuesday. Good intentions ton 40 percent to 31 percent with 24 percent undecided, indicating that Orton’s margin would come from Republicans. Five percent said they wouldnot vote for either. Leavitt beats Orton amongthis mostly Republicans will actually go to the polls if past trends holdtrue. The surveyindicates that low turnouts would bolster Davis’ and Cook's percentages. notwithstanding, probably only a quarter Survey June 19 —2 2000 The Salt Lake Tribune Run of Errors HIGH-ALTITUDE CLEANUP Led to Leak Of Nerve Gas Tooele probescall for tighter procedures Utahn Dan Smith waspart of brought hundredsof discarded oxygen canisters down from the mountain in May. Dan Smith air and harmless. EN WARCHOL An Everest cleanup expedition that LAKETRIBUNE Two independent probesof the first-ever nerve gas leak at the Army's incinerator near Tooele chronicle a troubling series of mishaps during the incident and call for procedural and engineering changes at the facility. Thereports,released last week by Utah's Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Cen- ters for Disease Control, foundthe small amountof nerve agent released May 8 at the Tooele Chemi. cal Weapons Disposal Facility was The World’s Highest Trash Dump no threat to workers, the commu nity or the environment. But the investigations founda combination of chronic mechani cal problems. miscommunica: tion,failure to follow emer; procedures and bad decis Utahn helpedcollect tons of garbage off Mount Everest, the ‘dirtiest mountain I’ve ever been on’ RAE BROOKS © 2000, TE mu Utahn Patrick| Kenny recalls‘limb ALT LAKE TRIBUNE plastic, candy wrappers, pieces Mount Everest isn’t just the highest mountainin the world. It’s also thetrashiest. Ask DanSmith, whojust returned to Salt Lake City after attempting to climb the 29,035-foot Himalayanpeak. “Everest is definitely the dirtiest mountain I've ever been on. said Smith, whohas scaled peaksin China, Russia, Alaska, Can- ada and South America. Smith was part of a 10-member U.S cleanup expedition that collected almost $500,000 fromsponsor's to removetrash from Everest. The Everest 2000 Environmental Expedition paid any Sherpa on the mountain for anydiscarded oxygen cannisters and other trash brought down to Base Camp. Morethan600canisters werecollected. “From what I saw,” said Utah climber Patrick Kenny, who climbed to Everest’s summit May26, . The sheer numbers of climbers and trekkersattracted to Everestare a bigpart of the problem, Smith said. As manyas 4,000 visiAl Hartmann.ee Lake Tribune Dan Smith holds souvenirs from his attempt to climb MountEverest. He also helped cleanit. A-14 tors a monthflock to the area during climbing season. aid. Trashis even beingdelivered near Base Camp by the advancing KhumbuIcefall. Tins, tents and other debris discarded higher up the mountain might takea couple of decadesto surfaceat the valley's southern Smith found a Swiss armyknife and a screwdriver. “To me,it's visual andaestheticthing.” hesaid. “| It doesn’t have to be there, and you should havethe resourcesto carry out your trash." Granted, Smith says, there are emergen cies when climbers just need toget off the mountain. But even as Sherpas werecarting down trash from Camp 4 at 26,300 feet, other climbers were discarding more gear and garbageat the same South C I site. Kennyagreed. “TheSouth Colis ami “There is tons of refuse, junk, brokentent poles, stove canisters, corpse: The problem, said Kenny, what constitutes an emergency. Just howtrashyis Everest? “Every5 feet you see little pieceof trash Envirocare © 2000, THE SALT LAKETRIBUNE A whistle-blower whoworked for four years at Envirocare of Utah apparently killed himself after months of trouble with the radioactive-waste-disposal company. Geoffrey Ogden lost controlof his truck and crashedin Bountiful the afternoon of June 2 after ingesting a large quantity of sleeping pills. He died a short timelater. -Bountiful police Detective Richard Bliss points to a number of factors leading to the apparentsuicide, Ogden, 28, had a history of depression, for which he was being treated, and had divorced a monthearlier, Ogden also was struggling with his recent departure from Envirocare, which operates a large radioactive-waste landfill in Tooele County, 80 miles southwest of Salt LakeCity. \ whose is defining See EVEREST.Page A-15 shipment received last October at Enviro: care's site. history is replete with regulatory, legal and po- litical turmoil “They were upset I wrote thereport,” said Ogden, whoat the time of the Tribuneinter as suit UnderUtah law, srr are prohibited intimidating Ogdenafter hepointedout a problem frompersecutingor punishing employees who “blow the whistle” ity or waste of public money, In practice, however, whistle- : ‘low are often ostracized, intimidated and discredited by their employers. Geoftrey Ogden oustart to feel yourself-worth disappear. management, which a week before hadplaced You question your own judgment. It te you apart from the inside out,” said Frank Hatton: him on administrative leave, ostensibly becausehe had accessed a pornographic Website from a work computer. 20 to the leak, by the Army and EG&G, the contractor that operates the incinerator. have yet to be made public. Mike Rowe, EG&G president andgeneral manager, told The Salt LakeTribune that EG&G’sinvestigation found the primary problem to have been the operator sending excessiveair draft intotheinciner: ator. which resulted in someagent getting through without The real reason for the leave, Ogden be. lieved, wasto punishhimfor writing aroutine “problem report” that held up a waste being burned. He says the Army’s find. ings probably will support EG&G's. Rowe says EG&G is engineer. ing a fix that will not allow the problem to recur. his system needs to be engineeredto betoler ant of operatorerror.” he says The company also is considerin 35 milligrams of GB nerve agent was released into the atmosphere. That amount, less than a drop, wouldbefatal only if applied directly to a tear duct or broken ticated damper, to the system. which would cut it off from the stack in any emergency. Rowe says. Critics of the incinerator. in: cluding Jason Families Groenewold Against of Incinerator Risk. say the release was inevita skin. GB basicallyis aninsecticide powerful enough to kill unprotected humans in a matterof sec- ble considering inherent problems onds, but prolonged exposure to See CONTRACTOR. Page A-21 withthe incineration technology America Remembers ‘Forgotten’ Korean War BY JOHN OMICINSKI GANNETT NEWS SERVICE Caught between The Big War and The Bad War, the Korean War which marksits 50th anniver sary today is The Forgotten War of the20th century “The war in Korea ranks among the most important” of the 20th century, “yet it is the least remembered,” writes one of the *s handful of storytellers. Clay Blair Featuring the only face-to-face fighting in history between U.S. forces and hordes of Communist Chinese troops sent by Mao Tse tung, it was the Cold War turned white-hot Fifty years later, North Korea and Cuba are the remaining @ Utah's Korean vets B® List of Utah's dead @ “M’A‘S'H’ connection Ward, a formerSalt L City policeman who wasfiredafter’ publiclycriticizing his depart ment’s handling of a serial-murder investi See ENVIROCARE, Page A-10 d \ | WEATHER Partly cloudy. hot B-10 THE ARTS The Utah Shakespearean Festival Monday season DAYBREAK begins D-1 A Sandy couple welcomes wildlife F-1 A4 A4 As orphans of the Cold War, and North Korean ator Kim Jong Il, whose father started the war, all but surrendered this month when he agreed with South Korea President. Kim Dae-jung aking peace talks. to day. in further signs of thaAW N wth Korea vowed to stop testing missiles. And asa welcome gift to the tlobal economy, Coca: it will ship in “several hundred” crates of its soft drinks President Clinton on June 19 See 50 YEARS, Pave A-4 view¥ as contemplé ating§ a whistle-blower law: reprimanded in April for with a waste shipment. Ina Salt Lake Tribune interviewApril 21, Ogden said his whistle-blowing had landed him in hot water with Envirocare which it end. Before Suicide, Ex-Employee Blew Whistle on Envirocare BY BRENTISRAELSEN in renders addinganisolation valve. a sophis: making createdthe nine-hourin. cident sunlight Two moreinvestigations into F-2 Ann anders y F:21 Book Reviews 0-5 F-8 Classi feds word D-4,F-20 Lottery Movies Obituaries Puzzles Real Estat ANNI, |
