avoid extralegal confrontation and publicity. It has taken nearly seven years for the PCB to shed what Dumelle calls "the wild-eyed environmentalist stigma." Board members appear anxious to stay out of the limelight. "I don't think there's any need for explosive speeches or press releases and that sort of thing," Dumelle says. "Our regulations speak for themselves. We're pretty much set now, and people in the system know it."
News coverage
The PCB operates circumspectly
behind a formidable array of writs,
motions and orders with virtually all its
activities unnoticed by the public. Press
coverage is generally limited to brief
newspaper blurbs, usually on the back
pages. Because variance and enforcement cases are subject to appeal within
35 days, Dumelle and members are
aware that public comments could
prejudice the outcome. Also, written
opinions from courts are normally slow
to follow decisions, making difficult any
timely public release of information. In
addition to sparse news coverage, the
board's only regular link with the public
is the twice-monthly Environmental
Register, a soporific document which
has usually lost its news value by the
time the third-class mail has delivered
it to newspaper offices. Unless one really
has a stake in the dealings, the Environmental Register is quite a chore to read.
An October edition, for example, begins with the less-than-explosive headline: "Board Adopts Combined Sewer Overflow Deadline Extension." The next item announced a sludge disposal workshop. In the earlier days of environmental fervor, the mailing list was 10,000 persons long. Now only 3,500 subscribe to the free Environmental Register.
Citizen complaint power
One of the little known areas of
citizen participation with the PCB is the
statutory right of any person or group to
bring before the board complaints
against polluters. In more than six and a
half years, however, only slightly more
than 100 such cases have been filed.
Many of these were promptly thrown
out as "frivolous" or "duplicitous"
because of crude, nonlegal presentation
and argument. As former member
Currie writes in the Northwestern University Law Review* "the complainant
must establish not only the existence of the violation but also the justification
for the requested order." Most citizens'
initiative cases couldn't complete such a
highly legalistic task.
One citizen-initiated case, launched by the League of Women Voters, resulted in what has been called a "landmark" decision. In League of Women Voters v. North Shore Sanitary Dstrict, a board decision resulted in a building ban in eastern Lake County for more than a year. The North Shore Sanitary District was required by action of the PCB to issue $55 million in bonds for the cleanup of Lake Michigan shoreline. Beaches there which had been closed later opened. "Lake Michigan may be a little safer because of that case," Dumelle says.
Another bureaucracy?
One concern which has surfaced
because of the PCB's distance from the
public is the maintenance of the spirit
and commitment that characterized the
board at the very beginning of its
operation. Is the PCB simply another
self-perpetuating cog in state government bureaucracy now? Or is it different? "Some people may think we're
bureaucratic, but we're not," Dumelle
contends. "We keep trying to examine
ourselves so we don't end up in some
crazy procedure just because it is a
procedure. We try to keep things open,
and keep the spirit of the act, with open
files, open hearings, adequate notice
and citizen participation." Board activities and research constantly turn up new
and unfolding environmental problems
such as ozone depletion, polychlorinated biphenyls in Illinois waters and
asbestos pollution.
But by the structure of the Illinois Environmental Protection Act, the board is not free to forewarn the public that danger exists. It is, to some extent, both a lawmaker and a judge, but not a siren. "After all, a judge can't go out and write traffic tickets," says Dumelle, who had just skipped out of an Illinois Recreation Council picnic and returned to his Chicago Loop office. "The reason I left early," Dumelle adds, "is that they were all going coho salmon fishing. And everybody knows that the fish in Lake Michigan are loaded with polychlorinated biphenyls." ¯
•David P. Currie, "Enforcement Under the Illinois Pollution Law," Northwestern University Law Review (July-August 1976).
Property crimes
increase; violent
crimes drop
A PROFILE of crime in Illinois for the 1975 calendar year reveals a period of mixed blessings for the citizens of the state. Even though there was an increase in the total number of crimes within the state, up 22,767 from the previous year (about a 3.95 percent increase), the rise was largely confined to the property crime category — burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft. The slight increase in the state's population of 14,000 could not have completely accounted for the increase.
The actual number of property crimes rose 31,304, a 6.17 per cent increase, but at the same time, there was a decrease in the violent crime category of 8,537, or a drop of 12.22 per cent. The violent crime category includes murder, forcible rape, and aggravated assault.
The breakdown in each of the categories,
by specific offense, is as follows:
Violent Crime
|
Murder Forcible rape Robbery Aggravated assault |
140 less, down 10.61%
213 less, down 6.91% 4,100 less, down 11.75% 4,084 less, down 13.38% |
Property Crime
This profile is based on figures in Crime in
the United States — 1975, Uniform Crime
Reports (Washington, D.C.: Federal Bureau
of Investigation, August 25, 1976).
Burglary
Larceny-theft
Motor vehicle theft
30,316 more, up 9.86%
2,193 less, down 3.71%
Illinois Issues in time capsule
for 2076, the Tricentennial
The December 1976 Illinois Issues (Vol.
II, No. 12) was one of the items placed
in the Illinois time capsule during
ceremonies at the Capitol Rotunda
December 3 sponsored by the Illinois
Bicentennial Commission. The capsule
is being kept by the state Historical Society
until the opening in 2076 during the nation's
Tricentennial Celebration. When the 21st
century rolls around, there may be a
question about when to open the capsule,
which has the date
July 4, 2075 painted on the top.
February 1977 / Illinois Issues / 9