December 10, 1983

The Justice Department sued the Shell Oil Company today for nearly $1.9 billion in damage to the environment the Government says was caused by the company's pesticide factory near Denver. This is the largest amount ever sought by any Federal agency for damage to natural resources, according to F. Henry Habicht 2d, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the land and natural resources division. The Government charged that more than 40 hazardous substances produced at the Shell facility, situated on the grounds of the Army's Rocky Mountain Arsenal, had spilled and that some had leaked into underground water supplies used by nearby communities. Colorado Files Suit Shortly after the Justice Department filed its suit in Federal District Court in Denver, the State of Colorado filed its own suit there, naming not only Shell but also the Army and the United States. In addition to the Shell suit, the Justice Department also disclosed that it had filed suit today against 50 corporations, including some of the nation's largest, in an attempt to get them to help pay for the cleanup of a hazardous waste site in Seymour, Ind. And the Environmental Protection Agency announced a suit had been filed on Thursday against the Occidental Chemical Corporation to recover nearly $45 million spent by the Government to clean up the hazardous waste site at Love Canal, in Niagara Falls, N.Y.

This is the year in which the home computer will join the sled and the bicycle under the Christmas tree. In numbers that outstrip even the most optimistic predictions, Commodores, Ataris and Colecos are being snapped up from the shelves. Americans have embraced the home computer as their favorite gadget for a Christmas present, replacing the food processors and video games of Christmases past. ''Last year, computers were new, unique and expensive,'' said Egil Juliussen, president of Future Computing Inc., a market forecasting concern that expects 2.5 million home computers to be sold this Christmas, twice as many as last year. ''This year, they're cheap, and they have become the gift.''

Text of declaration, Page 4. BRUSSELS, Dec. 9 - The Atlantic alliance today offered the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact the prospect of a long-term relationship, based on ''moderation,'' that the allies said could build a peaceful future for the world. In a statement officially described as an ''important political signal,'' the alliance members addressed the Soviet Union as a potential partner and asserted, ''For the benefit of mankind, we advocate an open, comprehensive political dialogue, as well as cooperation based on mutual advantage. ''We extend to the Soviet Union and the other Warsaw Pact countries the offer to work together with us to bring about a long-term constructive and realistic relationship based on equilibrium, moderation and reciprocity,'' the statement said.

News Analysis WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 - A central axiom of the Reagan Administration has been that the best way to press the Soviet Union into reasonable compromises on arms control is to build up American strategic nuclear forces vigorously and push ahead with missile deployments in Western Europe. Eventually this strategy may pay off. But for the moment, the evidence is to the contrary. Rather than adopting a more flexible and compromising posture in the face of the American military assertiveness, the Kremlin has broken off the negotiations on medium- range nuclear forces in Europe and left the strategic arms talks dangling in suspension.

''This,'' said George Warner, standing before a six-foot-high altar of golden cigar boxes containing what he considered ambrosia of the gods, ''is a religious experience.'' All those who beheld the trove of 200,000 Cuban cigars - the first of the legendary cigars legally available in this country since a 1961 trade embargo against Cuba - said they could not help but be moved. Recalling Fidel Castro's takeover of Cuba in 1959, Jon Reiss seemed close to tears. ''All those wonderful cigars,'' he said, shaking his head. Another man, explaining that he was neither the religious nor the emotional type, said he simply considered the 200,000-cigar treasure ''man's greatest discovery in decades.''