Last November, Sahan Journal reported on Environmental Protection Agency violations at Smith Foundry, a metal processing plant in Minneapolis’ East Phillips neighborhood.
It was the first time the public learned of those violations, which were filed in August 2023 based on a surprise inspection of the facility conducted that May. The federal violations noted that the EPA had been in communication with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, its state-level counterpart. But when Sahan Journal asked the MPCA for comment, it was clear the agency’s leaders weren’t up to speed on the EPA violations, which accused the company of violating the Clean Air Act for five years.
Sahan Journal requested emails between top MPCA officials from August, when the violations were filed, through November after our story broke. Emails were also obtained from the EPA via a data practices request. The resulting batches of hundreds of messages revealed an agency that had let the permit for a controversial facility languish for years and that was ill-equipped to respond to public concerns.
Smith Foundry closed for good in August, after reaching a settlement with the EPA that barred the facility from operating as foundry and abandoning plans to repurpose the building.
Here are four key takeaways from our reporting:
1. Smith Foundry’s state permit was on the back burner
Smith Foundry operated in East Phillips for more than a century. When it closed this summer, it was still operating based on a state permit issued in 1992. The permit was supposed to expire after five years, but it had been extended indefinitely through a technicality called an application shield in the 1990s.
Internal emails show that the MPCA knew Smith Foundry was a priority for neighbors, but had let its new permit application drag on since 2016. One email from an agency leader said, “If Smith Foundry is a priority permit, it sure doesn’t feel like one.”
2. There was a lack of internal communication at the MPCA about the Smith Foundry violations
The EPA informed the MPCA it was going to inspect Smith Foundry and other facilities in Minneapolis in advance and invited the state to send its own inspectors along. The MPCA did not. After the inspection, EPA and MPCA workers communicated back and forth about the facility’s history and permit status, and the federal agency informed the state that it planned to issue a notice of violation to Smith Foundry. EPA staff then shared the violation when it was filed in August 2023.
But word of that violation wasn’t widely shared at the MPCA. In an interview, Commissioner Katrina Kessler said she was told of the violations in October and didn’t know the details until she read about it in the news. The internal emails revealed that Jose Luis Villaseñor, the MPCA’s environmental justice advisory group coordinator, was not told of the violations. He wrote to agency leaders that he was frustrated as someone who lives within a block of Smith Foundry and who believes the agency should be transparent with residents of historically polluted areas.
The agency also had no plans to share the news with the public, and was unaware that EPA Notices of Violation are considered public information.
3. MPCA officials downplayed harm from the violations
Hundreds of emails from upset residents and elected officials flooded the inboxes of top MPCA officials after the November 2 article. Kessler and Darin Broton, director of external affairs at the time, responded to multiple emails with the line, “The EPA also informed MPCA staff that the violations in its Notice of Violations were not a risk to human health.”
The violations included uncontrolled particulate matter and lead pollution emerging from the facility, which the EPA noted in its violations posed a risk to human health. Kessler told Sahan Journal she regretted using that phrase.
4. The MPCA was frustrated with the EPA
The EPA pursued civil action over the pollution violations at Smith Foundry, which ultimately led to an $80,000 fine and a ban on furnace and casting operations at the facility.
Internal emails show that the MPCA urgently tried to get the EPA to participate in a community meeting about the violations, but the federal agency initially declined the invitation, citing its policy to not discuss ongoing violation cases.
Ultimately the EPA agreed to send staff members to a November 27 public meeting at an East Phillips recreation center, the first time the MPCA and EPA met with community members about the violations.
Angry residents packed the room, noting their longstanding concerns about the facility.
“We’ve complained about the Smith Foundry since day one,” Jolene Jones, a longtime resident of East Phillips’ Little Earth of United Tribes community, said at the meeting.
Smith Foundry closed for good in August, ending more than 100 years of production and pollution in the south Minneapolis neighborhood.
