FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                         ENR
MONDAY JULY 21, 1997                               (202) 514-2008
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888

                                 
              ENVIRONMENT DIVISION FILLS OUT TOP TWO
                  CRIMINAL ENFORCEMENT POSITIONS


     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Justice Department's Environment and
Natural Resources Division today named Steven P. Solow of
Washington, D.C. as Chief of the Department's Environmental Crimes
Section.  Solow had been Acting Chief of the Section since May of
1997, and had served as an Assistant Chief in the Section since
1994.

     In one of his first actions as Chief, Solow named Deborah
Smith as Deputy Chief of the Section, a newly created position. 
Smith had been an Assistant Chief in the Section since 1995.

     As head of the Division's Environmental Crimes Section, Solow
will be responsible for  environmental criminal investigations and
prosecutions, as well as coordination with and support for U.S.
Attorneys throughout the country handling environmental crimes. 
Solow succeeds Ronald Sarachan who recently left the Section to
return to the United States Attorney's office in Philadelphia. 
Sarachan brought Solow to the Section when he became Chief in 1994.

     "I am thrilled to have Steve heading up our environmental
criminal enforcement," said Lois Schiffer, Assistant Attorney
General in charge of the Environment and Natural Resources
Division.  "He has the knowledge and leadership abilities to
continue the effective program that the Section has developed in
close cooperation with U.S. Attorney's Offices and other federal
agencies.  Deborah Smith's strong talents, and her experience as an
Assistant U.S. Attorney, will make them a strong team."

     As an Assistant Chief in the Environmental Crimes Section,
Solow most recently developed and coordinated the Department's
enforcement initiative against illegal smugglers of a banned ozone-
destroying refrigerant, known as freon.  Freon, like other CFCs (or
chlorofluorocarbons) depletes the stratospheric ozone layer that
protects us from the sun's harmful ultraviolet radiation.  The CFC
initiative to date has resulted in  more than 30 indictments and
the seizure of over two and one-half million pounds of illegal
CFCs.  It is a model of effective coordination between the Section,
U.S. Attorneys and other federal agencies, including the EPA,  U.S.
Customs Service, the FBI, and the IRS.

     Solow had also supervised the Section's legislative training
and policy efforts, including work on the development of the
Environmental Crimes and Enforcement Act of 1997, now pending in
the House of Representatives.

     Before joining the Division, Solow was the co-director of the
Environmental Litigation Clinic and Professor of Environmental Law
at Pace University School of Law in White Plains, New York from
1992 to 1994.

     Solow first saw action in the environmental crimes arena as a
New York State Assistant Deputy Attorney General, where he worked
as a prosecutor for the New York State Organized Crime Task Force
from 1987 to 1992, and as a special task force attorney from 1992
to 1994.  Solow directed the investigation and prosecution of
organized crime's involvement in violating environmental laws, and
prosecuted numerous racketeering and narcotics cases for the Task
Force.
     A native of Roslyn Heights, Long Island, Solow received his
J.D. from New York University School of Law in 1985, and his B.A.
from Brown University in 1980.  From 1985 to 1987 he was a law
clerk in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of
Georgia in Rome.  He currently resides in Washington, D.C., with
his wife and two children.

     Deborah Smith received her J.D. from Northeastern University
School of Law in 1978, and her B.A. from the University of Florida
in 1974.  Prior to joining the Section, she was the Director of the
New England Bank Fraud Task Force for the Department's Criminal
Division from 1993 to 1995.  Before that, she was a Senior
Litigation Counsel and Trial Attorney in the Fraud Section from
1987 to 1993, where she successfully prosecuted televangelist Jim
Bakker for mail fraud and conspiracy in Charlotte, N.C.  Ms. Smith
was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Alaska United States
Attorney's Office from 1982 until 1987, and was First Assistant for
two years.  Ms. Smith has also been a Public Defender and Staff
Attorney to the Alaska Court of Appeals.  She has received numerous
awards for her work for the Department.
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