AKEIR )0A 5V4rE5 F-E-E3kuitgl ,24 i8c1 Supercollider seen as super economic boon American-Statesman Staff The proposed superconducting supercollider has the support of 90 percent of those surveyed who have heard of the project, according to the winter Texas Poll. By an overwhelming margin, Texans believe the collider would bring the state an economic boost without harming the environment. After months of lobbying, federal officials picked Texas over six oth- er states as the site for the pro- posed project last November. Supporters say the research labor- atory near Waxahachie, south of the Dallas-Fort Worth area, will pump an estimated $20 billion into the state's economy during the pro- ject's lifetime. Despite the amount of media at- tention to the project, onlyP./5_1per- cent of those polled said tiad heard of the supercollider. Those who knew of the project were asked about its possible impact. The statewide telephone poll, which interviewed 1,006 adults, suggests more Texans are certain of its economic benefit to the state than are sure of its scientific bene- fit for the nation. The poll was conducted from Jan. 21 to Feb. 3 by the Public Poli- cy Resources Laboratory of Texas A&M University. The margin of error is 3 percentage points. Although 90 percent said it would bring an economic boost, 84 percent said it would bring grTE scientific benefits. Only 32 percent said the project could damage the environment, and 27 percent said it could endanger people. Texans seem ready to embrace the supercollider much more so than people in other parts of the country. A January 1988 survey by the Wirthlin Group, conducted for the Texas National Research Labora- tory Commission, showed 81 per- cent of Texans supported lre. pro- ject, compared with 58 percent nationwide. Prof. Harold Gross, associate di- rector with the Center for Enter- prising at Southern Methodist University, said Texans like the su- percollider because tof he state's "economic debacle" since 1985. "People on the East Coast have diametrically opposed priorities. They've been having a real eco- nomic boom," Gross said, "and they are considerably more con- cerned with the problems of rapid economic growth than they are with trying to promote more growth."
