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City of Red Wing seeks garbage monopoly at expense of rural and small town residents

Recycling ignored

Minnesota law ignored

Recently, after years of campaigning by residents, Hennepin County abandoned it’s plan to burn more garbage in downtown Minneapolis and called upon the city to collect more materials for recycling.  The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), which had always opposed the residents’ campaign, reacted with displeasure, broadcastingan email saying: “The HERC incinerator will remain an important component of how the metro area manages garbage disposal.”

It should be no secret that a key cause of Minnesota’s failure for many years to make real progress on recycling is the MPCA itself.  The MPCA makes waste policy, issues permits for waste facilities, does environmental review of many of them,  and also makes grants for building/expanding these same facilities.  There are huge conflicts of interest in these multiple roles.  How can anybody believe the PCA is objective about a facility that it is funding?  Worse, the PCA’s waste policy people act as a branch of the garbage incineration industry.  Rather than focus on the top of the Minnesota “waste hierarchy”–source reduction and recycling–the PCA inverts the intent of the law and focuses on the bottom of the hierarchy–dumping and burning.

The Minnesota Legislative Auditor has said:

Minnesota law says that counties should manage municipal solid
waste according to a hierarchy that makes waste reduction, reuse, and
recycling the preferred methods and landfill disposal the least
preferred. In 1989, the Legislature adopted comprehensive waste
reduction and recycling legislation, commonly referred to as SCORE,
to support the waste management hierarchy. Among other things, the
legislation authorized state block grants to counties that could be used
for recycling and waste reduction activities, education, developing
markets for recycled material, and management of household
hazardous waste. The legislation also established goals for recycling
and waste reduction.

But the PCA puts constant pressure on counties and municipalities to burn more, at great expense and harm to air quality, while doing very little if anything to increase recycling.  Shameful examples of this can be found all over Minnesota, but here I will focus on Red Wing and Goodhue County.  The MPCA’s chief incineration agent is Sig Schurle, who prowls the state promoting the big burn.  (Schurle doesn’t return calls from this writer.  As a matter of fact, nobody at the MPCA seems to be returning my calls right now.)

The City of Red Wing has been into garbage incineration for a long time, with the usual toxic effects not only on the air but on policy.  For instance, Red Wing has lobbied the MPCA for years to get it to force more garbage from the Cities to be sent to Red Wing.  Why, because Red Wing’s burner has been losing the City lots of money for years and city officials’ idea of how to fix that is to get more garbage to burn.  Red Wing public works director Rick Moskwa said “since I took over that facility ten years ago, all I’ve done is look for waste [to burn].” The City has curtailed library hours, stopped distributing a newsletter, and curtailed other useful services while wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars per year keeping the burner going.

Now, Red Wing has shut down its municipal burner–old, dirty, obsolete, with a bad record of permit violations–and is working various alternative burner scams with Xcel Energy and the MPCA.  Why?  Xcel Energy also burns garbage in Red Wing in two converted 1940’s coal burners.  Xcel also wants to burn more garbage.  So the Red Wing legislative agenda for 2014 includes opposing a container deposit bill, more Cities garbage burned in Red Wing, and diversion of money from the Xcel “Renewable Development Fund” to buy Red Wing a garbage grinder–to increase burning at the Xcel incinerators.  Is all this shameful enough?  Read on:

For years Red Wing has also tried to force municipalities and waste haulers in and around Goodhue County to send their garbage for burning in Red Wing.  So far, these efforts have failed.  Now, Xcel, Red Wing, and the MPCA are trying again, beating on Goodhue County with carrots and sticks:

(1)     The MPCA is withholding approval of the Goodhue County solid waste plan;
(2)     he MPCA has withheld the last three “SCORE” payments–totaling about $70,000–to Goodhue County, and
(3)     is offering to transfer responsibility for an old closed landfill to the state.  This would require special legislation which Rep. Tim Kelly is reportedly prepared to introduce.

The conditions:  Goodhue County to pass a “flow control” ordinance forcing all county garbage to be taken to Red Wing for grinding up and burning.  Red Wing projects this monopoly would bring the city garbage operation an additional 8,000 tons/year of waste.  The motivation is financial:  it would bring the money-losing operation closer to break-even.

In effect:  Red Wing’s money-losing garbage operation, and the Xcel garbage burners, would be subsidized by rural Goodhue County residents.

At a March 3rd “workshop” on the scheme, attended by Red Wing city council members, Sig The Burner Man, and Greg Isakson, Goodhue County Public Works Director and County Engineer.  All said they liked the idea.  No public comment was allowed.  No mention was made of the health effects of more garbage incinerator pollution.   No mention was made of recycling except as a possible future issue.  (Red Wing’s Deputy Director of Solid Waste, Jeff Schneider, used to be “State Recycling Coordinator” at the MPCA.)

Data provided by Goodhue County indicates county recycling rates peaked at in 43% in 2007 but had dropped to 37 by 2012.

What are the implications of this scheme?

Higher disposal costs for everybody in Goodhue County, especially rural and small-town residents.
More health-damaging incinerator pollution.
Even less recycling.
Possible serious damage to private businesses such as the P.I.G. landfill in Hager City, Wisconsin (across the Mississippi River from Red Wing) that now takes a lot of waste from Goodhue County.

Benefits?

Well, some of the costs of Red Wing’s misguided waste operations could be shifted onto other County residents, and possible landfill cleanup costs could be shifted onto the entire state.  But are these real benefits?

Alternatives:

Communities all over the world are getting serious about source reduction and recycling (“zero waste.”)  There’s no reason the City of Red Wing, and Goodhue County, couldn’t do the same (Except for the perverted guidance they get from the “Pollution Control Agency .”)  With time and commitment, we could work up to a recycling rate of 80%, leaving a relatively small amount of stuff to be landfilled, and have solid waste management we could be proud of.

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Comments I sent in on the current funding cycle of the Xcel “Renewable Development Account”

I’ve been looking a the Xcel Renewable Development Account (commonly called the Renewable Development Fund“) and it has a pretty sad history.   Very little good has come of it and much money has been wasted that could productively have been invested in conservation/efficiency projects.

Examples: Ten million or so went to the promoters of a new coal burner on the Range–because of the machinations of the politically connected Tom Micheletti.  Not only was this money totally wasted, but people had  to devote lots of time and energy to fighting permits for the scheme (Excelsior Energy/Mesaba Project.  Carol Overland is the expert on this.  I seem to recall a hearing in Hoyt Lakes, in an unheated hockey rink in January, and not being allowed to finish my questioning of the technical witnesses…..) Continue Reading →

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“Burning garbage: Bad for children”

Nice piece by Lara Norkus-Crampton on the harm done by burning garbage:

http://southsidepride.com/2013/08/articles/Burning-garbage-bad-for-children.html
Burning garbage: Bad for children

BY LARA NORKUS-CRAMPTON, RN

A new study from the Harvard School of Public Health links autism to air pollution. Their conclusion: Women in the U.S. exposed to high levels of air pollution while pregnant were up to twice as likely to have a child with autism as women who lived in areas with low pollution. Continue Reading →

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Documents about the proposed wood burner in Phillips neighborhood, Minneapolis, Minnesota

The project, thankfully, is dead, but discussions of it keep coming up.  So I’m using this post to link to some relevant documents:

A set of letters endorsing the project, from R. T. Rybak, Mayor of Minneapolis, the Minneapolis Park Board, Clean Water Action, and others.

A PowerPoint presentation by yours truly:

“Saying “NO!” to permits for ‘Midtown Eco Energy'”

A summary of projected emission from the project, also by Muller.

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Minnesota Energy bills not ready for prime time

Two “omnibus” energy bills, SF 901 and HF 956 are wending their way through the Minnesota Legislature.  These bills are being heavily promoted by a coalition of industrial and environmental groups calling itself the “Clean Energy & Jobs” campaign.  A description of the bills from the point of view of the Clean Energy and Jobs folks is here, on the site of the Minnesota Renewable Energy Society.  Lots of people are being urged to contact their legislators in support of these bills.  Sounds good, doesn’t it?   And it many ways it is, but there are enough problems in these bills as they presently stand to potentially do more harm than good. Continue Reading →

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Air pollution, death and disease, and unjournalism from the Star-Tribune

Professionally funded and staffed scams seldom have much trouble getting their emissions into the mainstream media disguised as reporting.

From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune we get a nice example this morning:

To fight Twin Cities smog, give up that lawn mower, diesel buses?”

Subhead:

Umbrella group urges action on Twin Cities air pollution from all corners.”

The Strib story mirrors a campaign to evade having the US EPA designate the Metro area as in “non attainment” of the PM-2.5 particulate and/or ozone standards.  Why?  Because that might lead to some
regulatory screw-tightening that could actually clean up the air a bit. Continue Reading →

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Letter to John Marty, Chair of the Energy and Environment Committee of the Minnesota Senate (and one of MN’s most respected legislators)

March 22, 2013

Dear Sen. Marty:

Thanks for chatting with me last night (Thursday) after what must have been a long and tiring meeting.

I’ve been around energy policy debates long enough to have a sense of how hard it is to make substantial changes really happen.  You’ve taken on a big project, one we all have a stake in, and I would very much like to see it succeed with solid, change-making legislation. Continue Reading →

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ACTION ALERT: A pair of dirty-air bills: HF1300/SF1092 (Magnetation)

Update:  The Senate bill was stopped in a committee but later the language was sneaked into an “omnibus” bill and because law.  No legislator or lobbyist or advocate warned us that this was happening.  Is this the best we could expect of Marty, in particular??  Cynicism is not easy to avoid….

am

Friends:

Here are two bills intended to roll back some air quality regulations.

My sources say these bills are intended to greases the skids for the mining company Magentation.   http://www.magnetation.com/ .  But the changes are not artfully written, as bills often are, to focus on one facility.  Rather, the damage would apparently be statewide.  The essence seems to be an effort to remove “fugitive emissions” from permit limits.  Continue Reading →

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Just how low can an ENGO go?

Demand that “Conservation Minnesota” sever ties with incineration giant Covanta

It’s no secret that many mainstream ENGOs (“Environmental Non Governmental Organizations,” more simply “Environmental Groups”) have slipped more and more into the pockets of the polluters they are supposed to be opposing.  As they’ve made their transitions from member-support to grant-support, they’ve lost control of their own agendas, and, in many cases, have lost their souls.  So now, hearing from one, we don’t know whether it’s really Pew talking, or the Energy Foundation, or Monsanto, or Chesapeake Energy, or Covanta, or Waste Management, or whatever….

But personally, I’m not seen anything as nauseating at the “partnership” between “Conservation Minnesota” (closely tied to the League of Conservation Voters) and giant garbage burner operator Covanta. Continue Reading →

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A new position in the MPCA: Lobbyist for mining interests

State of Minnesota Job Posting:

Working Title:   Mining Coordinator
Hiring Agency:   Pollution Control Agency

STATE PROG ADMIN MGR SR

$ 30.13-$ 43.35 hourly, $ 62,911-$ 90,515 annually

Job Description:   The incumbent will be the mining subcabinet point person who will maintain relationships with state/federal agencies on mining regulatory matters, and will help coordinate among state agencies; Economic Development Mining Coordinator and mining companies to ensure mining regulatory issues and processes are addressed in a timely and complete manner.  [Need I say, no mention of “coordinating” with health or environmental interests?  After all, this is the “pollution control” agency!]

See more here:  https://statejobs.doer.state.mn.us/JobPosting/1ff54ad55ac88e57a2b840b9ceb979ca/View

Relevant contacts:

o       Paul Aasen, Commissioner of the MPCA, 651-757-2016, Paul.Aasen@state.mn.us

o       Governor Dayton, 651-201-3400, mark.dayton@state.mn.us

o       your state senator and representative.  Who represents me?  How do I let a Representative or Senator know how I feel about an issue?

am

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