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Show f. i EagC 12 - UINTAH BASIN STANDARD. September 1. 1098 d fire risk over storage tanks. However, they present greater installation and maintenance challenges, as well as an increased potential for leaks. During the last decade, over 330,000 releases from substandard tanks have been reported to the EPA. Many ofthese releases caused serious environmental damage. Recently, OUST reported that only d about ofthe existing UST systems have been upgraded since 1988. Over 600,000 substandard UST systems still need to be upgraded, replaced, or closed. The EPA notes that as the December deadline approaches, the workload for UST system contractors is increasing and may overwhelm the capacity of the contractors to upgrade or replace tanks. For this reason, the EPA strongly recommends owners and operators to make preparations sooner rather than later to avoid prolonged shutdown of their business or increased contractor expenses. For more information, contact Tri County Health Department, above-groun- EPA will not extend Dec. 22 deadline for UST compliance If you currently own a UST (underground storage tank) installed before December 22, 1988, you have less than four months remaining to upgrade, replace or close the tank. The EPA will not extend the December 22, 1998 deadline, and state, local or tribal governments do not have the authority to extend the deadline, according to EPA administrator Carol M. Browner. According to the EPA's Office of I i Underground Storage Tanks (OUST), the purpose of the December 22, 1998 deadline is to prevent another generation of leaking UST systems. By deadline, owners and operators will have had a full ten years to comply with UST regulations which require substandard UST systems either be upgraded, replaced or closed. Penalties for operating tanka that are out of compliance can be as much as $11,000 per day per violation. USTs are used to store a variety of liquids, fluids and gasses. With greater than 10 percent of their piping and tank volume located below ground, USTs offer a decreased one-thir- Tribes are failing children, official says Associated Press The crisis among Indian children is the single most important issue facing Indian communities today, says Kevin Gover, assistant secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs. Many, many - perhaps most - of our kids really live a lifetime of abuse in their childhoods," Cover said Tuesday. Alcoholism, substance abuse, sexual abuse, domestic violence are part of their lives. Speaking at the opening of the Four Corners Indian Country Conference, Gover said Indian communities are failing their children miserably and pretending not to notice the problems. Crimes committed by juveniles are on the rise on Indian reservations as they are nationwide, and the focus ofthis years conference is juvenile crime. Conference participants hope to form strategies for prosecuting juvenile criminals and dealing with the aftereffects of their crimes. But Gover, head ofthe Bureau of Indian Affairs, and former Idaho Attorney General Larry EchuHawk asked them to look more deeply: at how generations ofunresolved pain have created broken families and broken communities that are raising broken children and not taking a responsibility for the outcome. Echo Hawk, also a former legislator and prosecutor and now a law professor at Brigham Young University, said the nations problems with dropouts, teen pregnancy, teen suicide, drugs and alcohol are magnified on Indian reservations. He said todays problems can be traced to government policies in the 19th century that took Indians from their homelands, decimated their numbers and relocated them to small reservations where they became dependent on government ser- workers are attending the annual four-da- y conference put on by the U.S. attorneys for New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado. Task force seeks health care user-friend- ly By Norma Wagner The Salt Lake Tribune About 6,000 of the 30,000 children eligible for a new federalstate health insurance program are American Indians, of whom live on remote reservations in Utah. Like American Indians in other Western states, those children already face barriers of cost and access in getting health care. So 125 state, federal and tribal officials from Utah and 12 other states came up with a series of recommendations Wednesday to break down those obstacles during the annual Western Summit on Indian Health Care. The recommendations are designed to make the new Children's Health Insurance Program, also known as CHIP, more to Utahs American Inditwo-thir- ds user-friend- ly ans. WeVe got all kinds of work to do now because of the summit, said Rod Betit, executive director of the Utah Department of Health. Enrollment in CHIP began two weeks ago and so far 350 kids have signed up, said the programs executive director, Chad Westover. CHIP targets families within 100 to 200 percent of poverty. For a family of four, that means earning between $16,000 and $32,000. Those families eam too much to qualify for Medicaid and too little to afford private insurance. Families will be charged based on their income, but has sumeven a small mit officials worried. American Indians can get health care at the Indian Health Service (IHS)dinic in Fort Duchesne, where they are not charged a or at two other reservation clinics in Blanding and Montezuma, where they are charged fees based on their income. So summit officials want the CHIP dropped for chil- dren treated at the IHS facility, Betit said. "The issue is if they go into the IHS clinic, they shouldn't because have to make a do to he that have now, dont they said. v Summit officials also want those American Indian clinics included in the CHIP provider network, which in rural areas is the Public Employees Health Plan (PEHP) system. (CHIP enrollees in urban areas have three organizations from which to choose.) PEHP in rural areas uses Intermountain Health Care (IHC) doctors and facilities, though PEHP managers are expanding their panels of providers f o children in rural areas wont have to travel far distances for health health-maintenan- care. By including the Indian Health Service and reservation clinics in the PEHP network, American Indian children wont have to travel any farther either, and those facilities would receive the same reimbursement as other PEHP providers, Betit said. That would give those clinics much needed funds to pay for staff, medical equipment and supplies, and could even lead to a broader health-car- e network on the reservations, Betit said. rb33 - tzr New Items Arriving Daily, All Prices Slashed For The Sale! Bowes Vii 'FAerow a arm zed saie fiatarity, ,, ff See A Factory Representative Fri or Sat. Sept 5 4-- vices. As communities, we have not recovered from what happened to us a century to two centuries ago, said Gover. He said nothing that tribal members and their governments do in the areas of sovereignty, land rights and other important tribal issues matters if another generation continues to suffer and fail. Tribes have survived, Gover said, on the strength of their community and family bonds. He said tribal governments should put other issues on the back burners and turn their full attention to families and children. I really believe that if enough of us work hard enough that we can 'really turn these communities around and rid them of these scourges that our people suffer, "said Gover, himself a recovering alcoholic. Several hundred federal prosecutors, federal and tribal police officers, probation officers and social Child molester gets maximum sentence A Vernal man who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing girls ages 3 to 11 years old after he had gained ' their trust, had to facehisvictimsin 8 District Court last week during sentencing. Mark A. Hudspith, 36. told the court he does not want to be released from prison until he knows whats wrong with him. 1 dont know what's going on between my ears, he said. Judge Lynn Payne sentenced Hudspith to a six terms of five years to life in the Utah State Prison. The sentences are to be served consecutively. Payne said that if the sentencing guidelines for the crime allowed, he would have given him life without the possibility of parole. Hudspith pleaded guilty to six counts of second degree sexual abuse of a child in June. During sentencing he told the court how he would befriend single women for the purpose of gaining the confidence of their young daughters so he could abuse them sexually. During sentencing the victims and their parents were allowed to address the court. One child summed it up for all, saying, I hate you Mark. i Hudspith previously served time in a California prison for lewd and lascivious acts with children. After his release he moved to the Uintah Basin to live near his family. He lived in Roosevelt for a few months before moving to Vernal. mammmmmmm Dinettes Appliances ol Whirlpool Kitchen Aid i Roper & VISA 130 East Lagoon Roosevelt, Utah 722-223- 9 POOR |