Archive | Minneapolis RSS feed for this section

The “Burner County” resource page–resources to better understand why Hennepin County owns, and Covanta operates, the “HERC” garbage incinerator in Downtown Minneapolis, MN

By on October 30, 2014 in Covanta/Hennepin County "Environmental Services", Environmental Justice, Garbage Incineration, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Here are links to various documents, some found on the official Hennepin County website, some found elsewhere, and some obtained by means of MN Data Practices Act (“Freedom of Information”) requests.  This is a work in progress and we will be adding to it.  If you have documents to contribute to the effort, please send them to Alan Muller, alan@greendel.org

(There are also many important HERC documents on the website of Minneapolis Neighbors for Clean Air.)

My letter to the Hennepin County board about HERC concerns.  Includes links to background documents…. This letter contains various important questions we hope the County will provide meaningful answers to.

https://alanmuller.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/HC102714letter.pdf

Contract for hiring the Washington, DC law firm Morris, Manning & Martin for $50,000 in connection with HERC contract extension. Obtained from Hennepin County via Data Practices Act.

https://alanmuller.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Morrismanningcontract.pdf

Agreement between Hennepin County and HDR Engineering for services related to negotiating a 20-year extension of the “service agreement” with Covanta for operating the HERC garbage burner. Cost: $139,408.   Obtained from Hennepin County via Data Practices Act.

https://alanmuller.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/HDRconsultingagreement.pdf

The following two documents need to be looked at together.  One is the “Board Action Request,” giving a “TOTAL NET AMENDED NOT TO EXCEED $407,163,484.00”  The second is the text of the Amendment with an attached list of actual projects.

https://alanmuller.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Board-Action-Request-Amd-5-to-HC-service-agreement-with-Covanta.pdf

https://alanmuller.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/amendmentfivetoserviceagreement.pdf

This is a page extracted from the 342 page Hennepin County CBTF [Capital Budget Task Force] Recommended: 2015-2019 Capital Improvement Program. The full document is likely available on the Hennepin County website here: http://www.hennepin.us/your-government/budget-finance/budgets, but I am not attempting to link to the specific document as things seem to keep moving around.

https://alanmuller.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/page-from-2015-capital-budget.pdf

Comments { 0 }

A detailed review of every contaminated site in Minnesota is urgently needed….

By on August 6, 2014 in Environmental Justice, General Mills, Minneapolis, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Superfund, Uncategorized

One of the best elected officials I know of is Cam Gordon of the Minneapolis MN City Council.  Gordon is a Green Party member, one of a relative handful of official Greens holding office in the United States.  I don’t agree with all Gordon’s positions, of course, but he shows an impressive ability to maintain independent and thoughtful positions while seeming to maintain working relationships with his colleagues. In March, 2014, Gordon posted this commentary (below) on one of the more consequential environmental scandals to surface recently in Minnesota. Continue Reading →

Comments { 0 }

“Burning garbage: Bad for children”

By on August 7, 2013 in air pollution, Covanta/Hennepin County "Environmental Services", Garbage, Garbage Incineration, Minneapolis

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 →

Comments { 1 }

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

By on June 22, 2013 in "biomass", air pollution, Minneapolis

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.

Comments { 0 }