starting salaries will rise to $2425 per month for engineers (3.7%), $2207 for "other technical fields" (1.0%), and $2147 for "M.B.A. with technical B.S." (4.7%).

Linquist notes, however, that 4% of the responding firms say they will offer lower starting salaries next year and 17% say they won't raise them.

Less hiring isn't the only bad news in this year's survey. About 11% of the responding firms said they had had to fire some of their recently hired 1982 graduates. Half those firms mentioned layoffs of engineers; other fields frequently mentioned (regarding layoffs of recent grads) included business, accounting, chem­istry, and even computer science.

The survey was based on responses from 251 "well-known" companies representing a variety of business activities. The companies also were asked to give their outlook for 1983. For whatever it's worth, 43% say that business will be better than in 1982, 48% say it will be about the same, and 9% say it will be worse. D

Hooker accused of polluting water supply The Department of Justice, acting for the Environmental Protection Agency, has filed an amended com­plaint alleging that hazardous wastes from a Hooker Chemicals & Plastics landfill and from property owned by the city of Niagara Falls are con­taminating the drinking water sup­ply of 86,000 residents in and around Niagara Falls, N.Y.

In papers filed in the U.S. Dis­trict Court in Buffalo on Dec. 10, the federal government asks for cleanup commitments from Occiden­tal Chemical, Hooker's parent com­pany, and from the city, as well as for repayment from Hooker of costs for the government's investigation of contamination at the landfill.

According to the government, Hooker disposed of some 63,000 tons of chemicals between 1947 and 1975 at its property known as the S-area, which is 200 yards from the city's water treatment plant. Soil and wa­ter sampling at the treatment plant site has revealed the presence of trichlorophenols and benzene com­pounds, chemicals associated with Hooker's manufacturing processes. But the sampling also unearthed the presence of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons. These compounds, the government alleges, come from city-owned property, which was used to

dispose of incinerator residues and industrial and residential wastes from 1930 to 1950, and over which part of the present water treatment plant was built.

Some of these chemicals have been found in trace amounts in the water supply, but at levels that still meet safety standards. The concern is that continued seepage of these pollu­tants into the water supply would "present a very substantial threat to public health," says Justice De­partment attorney Michael Elder.

The government has been negoti­ating with Hooker and the city to resolve issues raised in the original suit filed two years ago. Although settlement was reached on Hooker's Hyde Park landfill, negotiations on the S-area site ceased in October because, the government says, many substantial differences remained on major issues, issues that would be costly for Hooker to remedy. Negoti­

ations have yet to begin on the Love Canal and 102nd St. sites, also lo­cated in Niagara Falls and used by Hooker. Elder says that talks have not come "close to a settlement ac­ceptable to Justice and EPA . . . and if we can't settle, we'll litigate."

A hearing is set for Dec. 29 to arrange for discovery and tr ial schedules. Even though that hear­ing is not likely to be held because of the holidays, the government is operating on the assumption that the case will be tried.

Norman Alpert, Occidental Chem­ical's vice president for special envi­ronmental projects, said in a pre­pared statement that the govern­ment was breaking off "productive discussions that already have re­solved many complicated and highly technical issues."

The government is expected to file additional papers against Hooker for contamination at Love Canal. G

Soviet chemist arrives in U.S., ending long fight to emigrate

Six months after her 32-day hunger strike led to promises of an exit visa (C&EN, June 14, page 19), and six years after the start of her struggle to emigrate, Soviet chemist Tatyana Lozansky and her daughter, Tanya, finally were allowed a week ago to emigrate to the U.S. to join her husband, Edward. Shown here at a press conference at American University in Washington, D.C.—where Edward teaches mathematics—Tanya, 11, Edward, and Tatyana expressed their grati­tude to the political and religious leaders who helped their cause. Tatyana's case drew widespread protests, including several from the American Chemical Society, of which she is a member. Ed Lozansky believes the decision to let her emigrate was made at the Politburo level. He says that her father, Gen. Ivan Yershov, retired from his post as Chief of Staff of Soviet Civil Defense to enable her to leave. An emigre is considered "a traitor to the motherland," and it would be embarrassing for a general to have an emigre daughter.

Dec. 20, 1982 C&EN 7