Jolene Jones noticed the pollution spewing out of Smith Foundry 50 years ago when she moved to Little Earth of United Tribes, a designated urban Native American housing area in Minneapolis’ East Phillips neighborhood.
Her family and neighbors started complaining about Smith Foundry, a metal processing plant on E. 28th Street, almost immediately, she told a panel of Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) leaders Monday night. She’s watched generations of kids grow up with asthma, and said the facility played a big role in those health issues.
“This is environmental racism at its finest guys,” Jones said. “We’ve got the most diverse community in the state of Minnesota, and we can’t breathe.”
She joined more than 100 East Phillips residents and environmental advocates who packed into a local recreation center for a public meeting about Smith Foundry. The Environmental Protection Agency found that the foundry violated the federal Clean Air Act during a surprise inspection in May.
The EPA is in an ongoing enforcement action against the foundry, and filed public documents on its inspection in August. But most Minnesotans weren’t informed of those violations until Sahan Journal published a story about the findings in early November. Neighbors were enraged by the findings, and that state and federal authorities did not immediately share the violations with the public.
The MPCA and EPA held the meeting Monday to inform people about the federal enforcement process and about Smith Foundry’s outstanding application for a state permit to continue operations, which has been pending since 2016. The foundry operates under a MPCA permit issued in 1992.
But people at the meeting made it clear they didn’t want to hear about a new permit with stronger regulations—they want the state to take bolder action.
“You’re failing at your job; you need to show up and shut ‘em down,” Jones said.
MPCA Commissioner Katrina Kessler said the agency wanted an opportunity to hear from residents. The agency got an earful from people complaining about the state’s regulations on Smith Foundry and in the East Phillips neighborhood over the years. Neighbors shared stories of caring for children with asthma and losing friends to heart conditions.
When Evan Mulholland, an environmental lawyer with the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, said he would resign if he were Kessler, her eyes widened and she forced a smile.
Kessler thanked people for attending the meeting and said she was taking in the community’s feelings and that the agency will be transparent with residents moving forward.
“We are committing now to be here, to listen, and to hold people accountable,” Kessler said.
“Stop thanking us for being here. We don’t want to be here. Do something for us,” said B. Rosas, a policy manager for the nonprofit Climate Generation who lived in East Phillips for a time growing up.
Smith Foundry president Adolfo Quiroga rose at the end of the meeting and said he will make improvements to the facility. Quiroga, whose firm Zynik Capital bought the foundry in December 2022, said he can’t speak for the past. He offered to answer questions from people in Spanish.
“We are committed, and I mean it, to be a good neighbor,” Quiroga said.
Kay Carvajal Moran, 22, said her father formerly worked at the foundry and would cough up black spit and return home with foul smelling clothes. Today, she works with kids at the Phillips Community Center. She explained to him in Spanish that she works with children who have asthma and that mothers in the neighborhood frequently ask her why their kids have the respiratory disease.
Enforcement process
Cory Boeck, manager of the Land and Air Compliance Section at the MPCA, grew emotional listening to people’s comments.
“It’s not easy for anyone at the agency to hear what we just heard,” Boeck said.
Before the EPA’s investigation, the MPCA last performed an inspection at Smith Foundry in 2018, Boeck said, and found no issues with pollution mitigation equipment. Since then, the MPCA has received 13 complaints about the facility, mostly related to odor, he said.
The EPA found violations at the foundry from 2018 to May 2023. Federal filings say Smith regularly emitted nearly twice the amount of air pollution allowed by its state permit, failed to properly maintain equipment designed to reduce pollution, and did not notify the state about equipment failures as required.
When the COVID-19 pandemic caused a significant drop in travel emissions in the spring of 2020, particulate matter pollution dropped all over the metro, except in Phillips, where the MPCA documented a 25 percent increase in PM 2.5 emissions, which are tiny, invisible particles that can penetrate the lungs and cause health issues, according to a Southwest Journal article.
Brian Dickens, chief of air enforcement and compliance for EPA Region 5, which covers the Midwest, told the crowd the Smith Foundry enforcement action remains in progress. The EPA is in conversations with Smith Foundry about coming into compliance with federal law, he said. Smith Foundry will also conduct further emissions testing on December 12 as part of that compliance, he said.
Dickens said the EPA has more advanced monitoring equipment than the state, and said that relative to other states, Minnesota has strong regulations. The EPA and MPCA have frequent and open communication, he said.
Several attendees, including state Representative Aisha Gomez, DFL- Minneapolis, called for Commissioner Kessler to address her comments to the Star Tribune, where she stated that the agency doesn’t have the data the EPA used to make its findings, and where she also seemed to suggest that the foundry’s pollution wasn’t exceeding permitted levels.
Kessler told Monday’s crowd that she didn’t mean to cast doubt on the EPA’s findings.
MPCA officials acknowledged the crowd’s frustration, and said the agency would try to do more monitoring of emissions from the building. The agency said it will be installing two more air monitors near the facility in the coming weeks.
“If we can do it, we will do it,” Kessler said.
As the three-hour meeting went on into the night, people became more incensed with the MPCA’s limited commitment to taking strong steps against the foundry. The MPCA said it expects Smith’s permit to be ready for review in April 2024, with a decision on the permit finalized by the end of the year. The process will include opportunities for public engagement.
“Too little, too late!” the crowd chanted.
