State pollution control officials met with the Payne-Phalen Community Council on St. Paul’s East Side on November 28 to discuss a recent fine levied against a metal foundry operating in the diverse, historically industrial neighborhood.
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency fined Northern Iron and Machine $41,500 for failing to properly report changes to its pollution mitigation equipment over a 15-year period. The agency conducted five inspections at the facility, each revealing that Northern Iron failed to disclose updates to equipment required by its permit, according to an agency news release from October 24.
“We take these violations very seriously,” MPCA director of external affairs Darin Broton told council members.
Northern Iron removed, modified, and replaced various pieces of pollution control equipment without properly amending its state permit or notifying regulators, an MPCA investigation found. That included failing to certify new hoods used to capture onsite pollution with a third-party expert, and operating some mitigation equipment farther away from the pollution source than was required by the state permit.
Northern Iron, located at Forest Street and Phalen Boulevard, paid its fine in August, and regulators say the facility completed all the steps required to come into compliance.
Fines go into the state environmental fund, which can be used to fund conservation and natural resource improvement projects. The MPCA will be installing air quality monitors near the foundry for the next three years.
Residents of the Payne-Phalen neighborhood said they would like to see the state do more to inform locals about the violations, and to have fine money directly benefit the community.
Lynette Harris, a Payne-Phalen Community Council board member, works for a medical lab on the East Side. She thinks fine money should go into blood lead-level testing for people who live near the foundry.
“This can be done,” Harris said.
Out of compliance
The MPCA said it does not believe the changes Northern Iron made to its mitigation equipment resulted in elevated levels of pollution. But by failing to inform regulators of changes to the equipment, Northern Iron deprived the MPCA of an opportunity to ensure that the facility was in full compliance.
Foundries are sources of particulate matter pollution, which can lead to respiratory and heart conditions, and can also emit lead and volatile organic compounds such as benzene.
In 2021, the most recent year with public state data available, Northern Iron emitted a significant amount of ammonia, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and lead.
Northern Iron was previously found in violations of its permit in 2009, 2016, and 2019. Those violations were considered low-level by the MPCA and didn’t result in fines.
Asked how such lapses in compliance can be prevented in the future, Broton said the agency is evaluating how it could have caught the violations earlier.
“Clearly something got missed here, and we need to continue to refine the process,” Broton said.
“Clearly something got missed here, and we need to continue to refine the process.”
—Darin Broton of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
Broton told the Payne-Phalen council that the MPCA has only nine inspectors for about 2,000 permitted facilities statewide.
“Those are not excuses,” said José Luis Villaseñor, environmental justice outreach coordinator for the MPCA.
The MPCA began investigating Northern Iron when the agency opened a process to update the foundry’s permit in 2020, according to a stipulation agreement reached between the company and the state. Three times in 2022, Northern Iron submitted permit amendment applications the MPCA found to be incomplete, according to the agreement. Northern Iron’s current permit was issued in 2002.
Northern Iron was purchased in August 2022 by Lawton Standard, a firm with metal facilities across the United States. The company did not respond to a request for comment.
‘In your face’
Several members of the Payne-Phalen Community Council said they were glad MPCA officials met with them about the violation, but remain concerned that not enough is being done to inform everyone who lives nearby.
Romana Banks, a board member who works as a nurse on the East Side, said she doesn’t think her neighbors know about the issue. Many are senior citizens who relied on the now-defunct Eastside Review newspaper for information, or newly arrived immigrants who have limited English skills.
Banks said she loves her neighborhood and thinks it’s a shame that polluting industries contribute to a negative perception of the East Side. “I hate that,” she said.
Jack Byers, executive director of the Payne-Phalen council, said the MPCA should help facilitate community engagement work. The council is a nonprofit with only two paid staff members and an elected, volunteer board. The organization cares deeply about the issue, but they could use the state’s help to inform people in the area and bring Northern Iron to the table, he said.
Board member and longtime East Side resident Seanne Thomas said she believes the relatively small fine showcases the history of regulators being deferential to industry. Such a small amount does not compensate for 15 years of wrongdoing, she said.
“It’s in your face,” she said. “This is America, this is how we roll.”
Northern Iron began operating in Payne-Phalen in the early 1900s, and is near other industrial sites like the former Whirlpool plant. As in many areas zoned for heavy industry in the state, the neighborhood was one of the few areas where people of color were allowed to buy homes during the years when the discriminatory practice of redlining was common.
That legacy continues today. Nearly 70 percent of Payne-Phalen residents are people of color, and just under half speak a language other than English at home, according to the demographer MN Compass.
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Northern Iron is one of 123 facilities that will fall under the nearly passed cumulative impact law, which seeks to strengthen protections for diverse neighborhoods with a history of pollution. That law is currently in a rulemaking process expected to run through 2026.
The MPCA is in the process of updating Northern Iron’s permit, and expects to share a draft of the permit in the first half of 2024, the agency said in a statement. The process will include meetings to solicit public input.
“The new permit is an important opportunity to add requirements on Northern Iron’s operations and relationship with neighbors,” the MPCA statement said.
The MPCA is also working to update the permit of Smith Foundry in south Minneapolis, another metal facility in a diverse neighborhood that is being scrutinized by neighbors after the Environmental Protection Agency found several violations of the Clean Air Act in a surprise inspection in May.
