The State - News from Oct. 13, 1985

A House-Senate panel in Washington approved a $3.7-million, low-interest loan to finance a study of whether a selenium-removal plant to clean up farm waste water in California’s Kesterson Wildlife Refuge would work. Final passage of the measure, part of a larger appropriations bill, is expected later this month. The study would consider the economic feasibility of the plant to solve the problem of selenium-contaminated waste water from irrigation drainage. The drainage goes into the refuge, and has been blamed for the death and deformity of thousands of migratory birds. The mineral occurs naturally in soil, and is poisonous in large doses.