Energetic Enforcement of Industrial
Waste Ordinances
ALLEN S. LAVIN, Attorney
The Metropolitan Sanitary District of Greater Chicago
Chicago, Illinois
If the topic, "Energetic Enforcement of Industrial Waste Ordinances" does
not intrigue you, perhaps the title "Water Pollution Control -- A Failure" will at
least attract your attention.
A lawyer not acquainted with the legal problems incident to water pollution
must wonder why there is such a special concern with the enforcement of Industrial Waste Ordinances as opposed to any other kind of ordinance or law. We do,
after all, live in a society based on law. Yet, special concern in this matter is
engendered by the sad fact that laws and ordinances of agencies charged with the
responsibility of protecting our waters against pollution have not been and are not
being enforced. If this is generally true, and it is, then we who sit together at
an Industrial Waste Conference are compelled to ask, why? Why this lack of enforcement? The answer is simple. We have, in fact, been brainwashed. Have
we not frequently heard enforcement agencies state that the laws are too vague,
that they will not pass a court test? Have we not frequently heard engineers,
technologists and even lawyers argue that there are no definite standards set for
water purity; or, those that are set are so ambiguous and ill-defined that they can
neither be enforced nor complied with? Have we not frequently heard industries
state that it is not economically feasible to spend large sums for water pollution
control facilities; that these facilities have no productive value; that more research
is needed?
There are even some like the speaker at a recent annual meeting of the
American Institute of Chemical Engineers who say that funds spent for water pollution control are useless and could be better spent to feed hungry children. One
must wonder what hungry children will do without potable water and for how long
we might continue to grow food with toxic waters.
I suggest that all of these arguments, excuses and alibis advanced are nothing
else but rationalizations which we keep telling ourselves over and over again to
the point where we start believing them and thereby cleanse away our own guilt.
Any argument, however, must be answered and will be answered later in my
presentation.
I submit that there are only two controlling and overriding factors causing a
lack of enforcement of our Industrial Waste Ordinances. First, it is in the very
nature of our economic system that industry will not expend funds that will have
the effect of adding to the cost of their product until the law demands that they
do so; second, it is in the nature of democratic systems of government that legislatures will not enact new laws nor will executives enforce these laws after enactment unless moral or social indignation by the people demands that they do.
These two principles run through the entire fabric of our history. It was only
after the moral and social conscience of the people was awakened, disturbed and
overtly manifested itself that we enacted and enforced labor laws, child labor
laws if you please, anti-trust laws and civil rights laws. Industry and government
were not in the forefront of those historic battlegrounds; they were not the leaders-,
- 550