Bush Assails Dukakis Over Mass. Pollution

BOSTON â€”  George Bush today lashed out at Michael S. Dukakis’ environmental record in his Democratic rival’s home state, charging that the governor has repeatedly fought efforts to make Boston Harbor cleaner.

Bush, who took an early-morning boat tour of the polluted harbor in Dukakis’ hometown, said Dukakis had sought permission from former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator William Ruckelshaus to delay a ban on dumping waste in the harbor. Dukakis’ first administration prepared the papers to do so, but it was his Republican successor, Ed King, who actually filed the EPA request.

“Two hundred years ago tea was spilled in the Boston harbor in the name of liberty,� the vice president said. “If tea were spilled in the Boston harbor today it would desolve in the residue of my opponent’s neglect and delay.

“The stealth candidate is at it again, making promises on one hand but hiding his secret record on the other.�

The vice president also noted that Dukakis has visited the New Jersey coast and spoken of his concern over the pollution along the shore. “What he didn’t tell them is this: The Dukakis Administration had applied in 1985 for a permit to dump Massachusetts sewage sludge off the New Jersey coast,� he said.

In December, 1985, Dukakis sought temporary permission from the EPA to dump sludge at a site 106 miles off the New Jersey coast, where New Jersey and New York already were dumping sludge. A compromise allowed Massachusetts to dump it farther away, at a deep-water site beyond the continental shelf.

While campaigning in his opponent’s back yard, Bush was greeted by about 70 Dukakis supporters, who chanted, “Where was George?�--a refrain questioning Bush’s role in the Reagan Administration.

Today was the second of a three-day campaign swing devoted to the environment. In a speech Wednesday in Michigan, Bush vowed a policy of “zero tolerance� of environmental polluters.