A VINEGAR COMPANY’S FIVE-YEAR ASSAULT ON CHICAGO’S AIR

In a settlement finalized on March 5, 2024, Fleischmann’s Vinegar Company, Inc. was forced to answer for years of documented environmental negligence at its Chicago facility. The company, a major vinegar producer, agreed to pay a $414,364 civil penalty after an EPA investigation uncovered a pattern of systemic failures to comply with the Clean Air Act. This wasn’t an accident. It was a business practice. For at least five years, from November 2015 to December 2020, the company operated its facility in a way that jeopardized the effectiveness of its pollution control systems, releasing excess volatile organic material (VOM) into the air breathed by Chicago residents.

THE NON-FINANCIAL LEDGER

A penalty of $414,364 registers on a corporate balance sheet. What doesn’t register is the cost paid by the people living downwind. Volatile Organic Materials aren’t just an abstract regulatory term; they are a primary ingredient in the formation of ground-level ozone, or smog. Smog is a lung irritant that triggers asthma attacks, worsens bronchitis, and can lead to permanent lung damage, especially in children and the elderly.

For years, a company producing a common household product operated as if the air its neighbors breathe was a free and infinite dumping ground.

Fleischmann’s violations represent a betrayal of public trust. The permits they ignored were not suggestions; they were legally binding contracts with the community, promising that the company would operate safely. By failing to test their equipment, running it outside of established safety parameters, and hiding their non-compliance behind missing data logs, the company chose profit over public health. The real ledger records the respiratory illnesses, the diminished quality of life, and the cynical corporate calculation that a fine is simply the cost of doing business.

LEGAL RECEIPTS: A SYSTEM OF DELIBERATE FAILURE

The EPA’s case, detailed in Docket No. CAA-05-2024-0026, rests on Fleischmann’s flagrant disregard for the specific conditions of its permits issued by the Illinois EPA. These permits are the rulebook. Fleischmann’s threw the book out.

Count I: Willful Ignorance

The company’s permit explicitly required performance tests to establish safe operating limits for its pollution scrubbers. These tests determine the minimum amount of water (scrubbant) and the maximum airflow a scrubber can handle while still effectively removing VOMs. Fleischmann’s just… didn’t do them for multiple machine configurations.

“[Fleischmann’s] failed to conduct performance tests to develop minimum scrubbant flow rates… for A24 until September 28-30 and October 1, 2021.”

This means for years, including all of 2016 through 2020 for certain equipment, the company was operating blind, with no verified data to prove its pollution controls were working as promised.

Count II: Operating Outside the Lines

When they did have established limits, they ignored them. The EPA found that from 2016 through 2020, Fleischmann’s repeatedly operated its equipment with scrubbant flow rates below the required minimums and airflow rates above the legal maximums. Pushing more air through the system with less water is a recipe for overwhelming the scrubbers and releasing untreated pollutants directly into the atmosphere. For acetators A24 and A25, this happened for hundreds of days in 2020 alone.

Count III: Hiding the Evidence

Perhaps most damning is the company’s failure to even monitor its own equipment. The permit required monthly airflow monitoring. The EPA found massive gaps in the data logs.

“By failing to record air flows for multiple operational scrubbers for periods exceeding one month, Fleischmann’s Vinegar violated condition 4.1.2(c)(ii)(A) of the 2015 CAAPP Permit…”

For one unit, A12, the company failed to record airflow from August 2019 to January 2020 and then again from June 2020 to December 2020. If you don’t record the violation, you can’t be held accountable for it. That was the strategy.

SOCIETAL IMPACT MAPPING

The data from the EPA investigation paints a clear picture of neglect that extends far beyond the factory walls at 4801 South Oakley Avenue. This is a story of public health at risk, environmental harm, and the economic inequality baked into our system.

Public Health

The EPA data shows that for some of Fleischmann’s equipment, like acetators A12, A13, and A20, the machinery was pushed beyond its legal airflow limits for 88%, 95%, and even 98% of the months it was in operation. This isn’t an occasional slip-up; it’s the standard operating procedure. Each violation was another dose of pollution added to the local air supply, contributing to the smog that disproportionately harms vulnerable populations in dense urban environments like Chicago.

Economic Inequality

Industrial facilities are rarely built in wealthy neighborhoods. The communities that bear the brunt of this pollution are often working-class and communities of color. While the executives count their profits, families in the surrounding neighborhoods are forced to count the costs in the form of medical bills for respiratory conditions and lost school or work days. The penalty paid by the company will never find its way back to the people whose health was directly put at risk.

THE “COST OF A LIFE” METRIC

WHAT NOW?

The settlement is not the end of the story. It is a single data point in a long history of corporate actors offloading their costs onto the public. Accountability requires constant vigilance.

Corporate Leadership

The consent agreement was signed on behalf of Fleischmann’s Vinegar Company, Inc. by:

• Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Secretary: Paul Hennebery

Regulatory Watchlist

The agencies responsible for enforcing the law must be held accountable by the public. Do not let this settlement be the final word.

• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region 5: The federal body that brought this enforcement action. They must continue to monitor Fleischmann’s for any future violations.
• Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Illinois EPA): The state agency that issues the permits. They must ensure permit conditions are strict, enforceable, and actively policed.

The Path Forward is Resistance

This penalty is a fraction of the profit likely generated by running the factory outside of legal limits for five years. Real change does not come from closed-door settlements. It comes from grassroots power. Support local environmental justice organizations in Chicago fighting for clean air. Demand that local officials and the Illinois EPA conduct more frequent and unannounced inspections of industrial facilities. Organize mutual aid networks to support community members suffering from respiratory illnesses. The power to protect your community is in your hands, not theirs.