Procter & Gamble Co. v. City of Chicago

509 F.2d 69, 7 ERC 1328
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedJanuary 15, 1975
DocketNo. 73-1650
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 509 F.2d 69 (Procter & Gamble Co. v. City of Chicago) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Procter & Gamble Co. v. City of Chicago, 509 F.2d 69, 7 ERC 1328 (7th Cir. 1975).

Opinion

SWYGERT, Chief Judge.

This appeal presents the question of whether an ordinance of the City of Chicago that bans the use of detergents containing phosphates is unconstitutional on the ground that it results in an impermissible interference with interstate commerce. The district court decided that the ordinance is unconstitutional.1 We disagree.

The ordinance was adopted by the City Council after its Committee on Environmental Control had held public meetings for three days. The measure provided that the sale of detergents containing any phosphorous after June 30, 1972 constituted a criminal offense.2 Most detergents sold in this country contain phosphates which are compounds containing the element phosphorous.

[73]*73The present action was brought seeking declaratory and injunctive relief. Plaintiff-appellee Procter and Gamble Company is a manufacturer of phosphate detergents. Plaintiff-appellee FMC Corporation processes and manufacturers sodium tripolyphosphate and other phosphate products for use in detergents. Three other plaintiffs were dismissed for failure to prove the jurisdictional amount and have not appealed. The second amended complaint alleged only a violation of the Commerce Clause of the Constitution (Article I, Section 8, Clause 3) and the case was tried on that issue.

A substantial amount of evidence, including exhaustive expert scientific and technical testimony by many witnesses, was presented both in court and by depositions. As the district court observed, this evidence is much too extensive to be set out in any detail. We think we need present only a broad outline of the more relevant evidence.

The plaintiffs unquestionably showed that the ordinance has had an adverse effect upon their businesses which admittedly are national in scope. Procter and Gamble was unable to sell any detergents in the Chicago area for five months after June 30, 1972 and lost $4,700,000 in sales as a result. FMC lost $500,000 worth of sales of phosphates as a result of the ordinance. Further, whereas before the ordinance Procter’s Chicago plant was able to supply over 96 percent, of the requirements for the six-state “Chicago Plant Area,” after the ordinance became effective the plant could supply only 51 percent, which necessitated shipments to this area from other Procter plants in Louisiana, Missouri, and Kansas. The result was the establishment of a different and, from the company’s viewpoint, a less efficient interstate system of distribution of its products.

Evidence was also introduced concerning the warehousing practices of the retail grocery chains serving Chicago and the surrounding area. These chains, which include chains of independents, warehouse their products on an area-wide basis as opposed to a city-wide basis. Goods are purchased from the manufacturer and stored in warehouses for eventual distribution to the individual retail stores. In the Chicago area, the same warehouses also service stores in northern Illinois, northern Indiana, southern Wisconsin, and Michigan. At the warehouses, each product is stored in its own particular area called a slot. There was testimony that these warehouses will not “double slot” a product and thus refused to carry both phosphate and non-phosphate versions of the same product. The explanation is that there is not sufficient space in the warehouses and there would be the possibility of a violation of the ordinance if phosphate formulas were accidently shipped to Chicago stores. Of the seventeen major Chicago area customers of Procter and Gamble, fifteen chose to carry only non-phosphate detergents. The result has been that consumers in areas of Illinois or the other adjacent states where the sale of phosphate detergents is legal can purchase only non-phosphate formulas of the major detergents from stores which are part of these fifteen chains. Thus, the Chicago ordinance affected Procter and Gamble’s ability to sell its phosphate detergents in other states.

The bulk of the evidence dealt with the nature and effect of phosphates and particularly their effect on the water moving in the Illinois Waterway. Phosphates are not a problem in and of themselves. They are not harmful to most humans and are even added to water by some communities for the purpose of softening. The aspect of phosphates that causes concern is their nutritive contribution to the eutrophication of rivers or lakes. Eutrophication is a process of aging, whereby a body of water becomes over-nourished in nutrient elements such that there occurs an extensive growth of green plants or nuisance algae. Nuisance algae can result in an unpleasant odor and a bad taste in drinking water. It is the elimination and prevention of these algae that is desirable. [74]*74Some controversy exists, however, concerning the relationship of phosphorous and eutrophication. An abundance of phosphorous does not always result in increased eutrophication. It is a more complex process and its exact nature is somewhat in dispute. Other nutrients including nitrogen and carbon are needed for eutrophication. So far as the nutrient aspect of eutrophication is concerned the important inquiry centers on the idea of the “limiting nutrient” or “limiting factor.” The “limiting nutrient” is that nutrient that is in the shortest supply relative to the need for it for plant growth. It is the factor which limits any further aquatic growth. The district court found that phosphorous can be a “limiting factor” for nuisance algae only at .02 milligrams per liter or less. There is some evidence, however, that phosphorous is the nutrient that is most easily controlled.

The ordinance’s most direct effect is on the Illinois Waterway because the City’s sewage effluent flows into it. This Waterway, which includes the Illinois River, is a water source for some communities, but not for Chicago. The Waterway has a very high percentage of phosphorous. The district court determined that before the passage of the ordinance the amount of phosphorous present in this Waterway was at least twenty-five times as much as is necessary to sustain nuisance algae. Still, there is a question of whether there is any nuisance algae problem in the Illinois River. Although the City introduced photographs showing the presence of such algae, the district court concluded “that there was no significant amount of nuisance algae in the Illinois River.” 3 Explanations offered for this lack of growth included the excessive turbidity of the river which prevents needed sunlight, periodic flushing, and possibly some undefined trace elements which inhibit such growth. Also, the district court found that the elimination of Chicago phosphates alone would not result in reaching the “limiting factor” level, though a 66 percent reduction did result in at least part of the Waterway after the ordinance had been in effect.

Finally, there is the evidence concerning Lake Michigan which is the source of Chicago’s water supply. The danger of nuisance algae is more pronounced with regard to Lake Michigan because it does not have the flushing quality of a river. Moreover, the phosphorous concentration is at about the “limiting factor” of .02 milligrams per liter. But unlike some of the other communities along the lake, Chicago’s sewage does not normally flow into the lake; only during excessively heavy rainstorms is one of two rivers reversed so that sewage flows into Lake Michigan. The district court determined that such reversals occurred only four times within a ten year period, though there was also testimony that the frequency of such reversals is increasing.

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Bluebook (online)
509 F.2d 69, 7 ERC 1328, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/procter-gamble-co-v-city-of-chicago-ca7-1975.