Campaign Focus Turns to Schools and Pollution : Sewage-Filled Boston Harbor Is Dirtiest in U.S., Bush Charges

BOSTON — Dank wastes. Squishy sludge. Unspeakable funk and poison. These are the horrors that brought a broad smile to the face of George Bush.

Here on the waters of Boston Harbor, in the heart of the home state of his Democratic presidental rival, Bush Thursday pointed an accusing finger at pollution and Michael S. Dukakis’ reputation as an environmental champion.

“My opponent talks a pretty good game on the environment. But, as baseball sage Yogi Berra used to say: ‘Sometimes you can observe a lot just by watching,’ ” Bush said.

He watched, beaming, from the top deck of a tour boat on a slow ride around the famous waterway, which he condemned as the “dirtiest harbor in America.”

He was shown the rippling currents where the city of Boston pumps “barely treated” sludge into the bay. He was told of industrial carcinogens and heavy metals working their way into the food chain. He spoke of court fights in which Massachusetts resisted clean-up directives.

“My opponent has said that he will do for America what he has done for Massachusetts,” Bush said. “That’s why I fear for my country.”

The made-for-photographs event was sweetened by two unexpected occurrences: a downright feeble showing of pro-Dukakis demonstrators and a new poll by the Boston Herald indicating that the vice president had made up a 20-point gap in six weeks and was running dead even, 42% to 42%, with the Democratic nominee in Gov. Dukakis’ home state. (The poll’s margin of error was five points.)

Pleased by Headline

“Fantastic!” Bush said when shown a newspaper headline reading, Poll Shocker: Bush Ties Duke in Mass.

“I’ll let those words speak for themselves. They are more eloquent even than I.”

As for the 150 protesters at the waterfront and maybe 25 more in three boats, the vice president remarked: “That’s pathetic. Out of respect for my office, there ought to be more than that; come on.”

Bush’s visit to Boston, which occurred while Dukakis was in California, was the main event for a second consecutive campaign day that the vice president devoted to appealing for the environmentalist vote.

Museum Has ‘Sewage Meter’

His speech was built partly from facts on display at the Boston Aquarium. “They have an exhibit featuring a ‘sewage meter’ to measure the pollution flowing into what the exhibit calls ‘the dirtiest harbor in America,’ ” Bush said.

“The sewage meter is a measure of the cost of my opponent’s neglect of the environment. He delays, and the harbor gets dirtier and dirtier. Half a billion gallons of barely treated sewage a day--into the harbor . . . .

“And the exhibit reveals an appalling fact: The amount of sewage dumped into the harbor in 1986 would cover all of metropolitan Boston up to a depth of 17 feet. . . . Boston is the only major city in America to dump it right in its own harbor.”

Bush accused Dukakis of stalling repeatedly on clean-up orders and said he agreed to improve the city’s sewage treatment only after the courts stepped in. “U.S. District Court Judge David Mazzone said that what was being discharged into the harbor revealed ‘chronic, flagrant violations of federal law,’ ” Bush said.

Campaign Aides Pleased

Rarely have Bush and his campaign aides looked more pleased with themselves than at the end of this event. Perhaps it was their way of acknowledging that the Republican nominee seemed to be controlling the debate on an issue long claimed by Democrats.

At a press conference one day earlier, Dukakis, who recently broke ground for a new sewage treatment plant, had anticipated the criticism.

He said his efforts to clean up the harbor were “no thanks to Mr. Bush or the Reagan Administration.”

Many Democrats have complained that Bush is seeking to stake out an image that is dramatically different from the record of the Reagan Administration, including the President’s 1987 veto of a $20-billion Clean Water Act reauthorization. Reagan contended that the bill was bloated with unnecessary spending.

‘I’ll Do Better’

“I hear some of that out there,” Bush said Thursday of the criticism. “We’re doing better--and I’ll do better.”

For all of the day’s talk about pollution, the scene aboard the boat was quite pleasant. The sky was brilliant and cloudless, the sea air had a refreshing bite, lobstermen pulled up their traps only yards from the passing flotilla of Bush and police and Coast Guard boats.

“Must be hardy,” Bush remarked about the lobster.

George Auchy, commodore of the local Coast Guard Auxiliary, told Bush that sights could be deceptive. “You won’t see any solids--it’s the type of thing that you have to analyze to understand what you have.”