The Nation : Dukakis Launches Pollution Strike Force

Drawing personnel from across Massachusetts’ state government, Gov. Michael S. Dukakis launched an environmental strike force of 33 lawyers, scientists and law officers to bring criminal charges against polluters. State officials plan to use an array of crime-fighting techniques--undercover agents, aerial surveillance and search warrants--in the pollution crackdown, which they say is the most sweeping in the nation. “These are violent crimes. They do violence against others, against houses, against neighborhoods and against the water we drink and the air we breathe,” Dukakis said. Environmental Affairs Secretary John DeVillars said the task force will target high-visibility polluters in the short-term with the long-range goal of building cases that are “symbolic and emblematic of major, pervasive environmental crime.”