ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD

March 10,

1988

IN THE MATTER OF:

ORGANIC MATERIAL EMISSION

)

R86-l8

STANDARDS AND LIMITATIONS:

)

ORGANIC EMISSION GENERIC

RULE

)

DISSENTING OPINION (by J.D. Dumelle):

By

a 4—3 vote identical

to its original action the Board

majority has today again chosen not

to exempt the Viskase

Corporation from this rule.

At stake are 400 manufacturing and 600 research and

administrative jobs plus 650

jobs created

through the multiplier

effect.

Illinois badly needs those 1,650

jobs.

The March

2,

1988 newspaper stories of the closing of the nearby Campell Soup

plant

(460 jobs)

in Chicago and the possible closing

of

Inland

Steel’s plants in nearby Indiana

(750 to 1,450

jobs)

emphasize

the need

to keep Viskase

in operation in Bedford Park.

An article by David Moberg

in the Chicago Tribune of March

2,

1988 titled “The human cost of

‘restructuring’”

states:

Whenever

major

employers

shut

down

or

move,

even without this subsidy war,

there are major

costs

for

individual workers,

state

and

local

government

and

the networks

of suppliers that

have

grown

up

around

them.

Wisconsin

estimates

the

public

cost

of

the

Kenosha

shutdown at $100 million,

not counting all

the

negative

ripple

effects

on

the

economy.

But

those costs never show up on corporate books.

The shutdown of the Chrysler plant

in Kenosha, Wisconsin,

referred

to above,

terminates

5,000 jobs.

The “public cost”

according

to Moberg’s article

is $100,000,000.

On

a

proportionate basis, Viskase’s 1,000

jobs,

if terminated, will

result

in

a “public cost”

to Illinois of $20,000,000!

If this rule

is finally enacted

I can only urge Viskase

to

(a) immediately file

a variance (which stays

the effect

of the

rule)

and

(b)

appeal

to the Illinois Appellate Court.

Since this rule involves the Board’s determination of

“reasonably available control technology”

for Viskase the

87—127

---

—2—

Appellate Court will have

to then decide whether such technology,

which forces a major shutdown,

is

in fact and

in law,

“reasonable.

‘-~.

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~

~

I,

Dorothy

M.

Gunn,

Clerk

of the Illinois Pollution Control

Board, hereby certify that the above Disenting Opinion was

submitted on the

If~-~-

day of

___________________,

1988.

I~t~z1~1

p7,.

Dorothy M.

Gunn,

Clerk

Illinois Pollution Control Board

87—128