From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Aug. 4, 1975:

A proposal for a trash-powered steam plant at Kansas University was scheduled to get its first hearing at a meeting of the campus energy task force this month. The seven-person task force was to decide if the proposal merited future study by consulting engineers, according to chair Max Lucas. Other alternative power systems and energy conservation measures were also to be studied at the meeting, Lucas said. William Smith, dean of the School of Engineering and creator of the trash-powered plant proposal, had investigated several ideas for adapting the campus heating and cooling plant to alternative fuels and considered trash power “by far the best” alternative to natural gas, even though it would require a new plant.