Legalectric

Last night the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s (MPCA) staff that’s working on the Xcel Energy and USG air permits, both of which expired long ago (Xcel in 2009!), came down to Red Wing to explain some about air permitting and some specifics on each of these plants. The idea is to get folks familiar with the process, what’s at issue, what’s being emitted over our city.

THANK YOU, MPCA, FOR SHOWING UP!

The powerpoint from last night should arrive and I’ll post it right here when it does. Here it is!!

MPCA staff working on these projects include:

Weidemann, Lisa (She/Her/Hers) (MPCA)(Community Affairs) <Lisa.Weidemann@state.mn.us>, Campbell, Benton (He/Him/His) (MPCA)(on USG permit) <Benton.Campbell@state.mn.us>, Behrendt, Andrea (MPCA)(on Xcel permit) <Andrea.Behrendt@state.mn.us>, Fossum, Rachel (She/Her/Hers) (MPCA) <Rachel.Fossum@state.mn.us>, Volkmeier, Toni (She/Her/Hers) (MPCA)(Supervisor Air Quality Permits Unit 3)<toni.volkmeier@state.mn.us>, Satzke, David (MPCA) <David.Satzke@state.mn.us>, Brooks, Ned (MPCA)(Environmental Justice) <ned.brooks@state.mn.us

Who cares about air permits? Well, those of us who breathe should! How can we have the cleanest air possible in Red Wing? And for that, we need to keep up on emissions and air permits. The Xcel Energy garbage burner permit expired in 2009, and the company filed a timely renewal application, so it’s been grandfathered in and has been cruising along on those bootstraps for the last 15 years.

Incineration… burning garbage, “biomass,” whatever, it’s burning, it’s generating CO2 and some really hazardous emissions, no matter the source. It is NOT clean, and under Minnesota law, it is NOT renewable.

I’ve learned much about this from Alan Muller. One of Alan’s areas of expertise is incineration and air emissions, something he’s been working on for decades, and it’s a lot more technical than the transmission lines I usually work on. Here’s Alan at a Washington County Board meeting, where they were voting to approve an agreement to send their garbage our way (GARBAGE made for a busy day!!!):

Washington County? Why? Well Washington County and Ramsey County send their garbage to Xcel’s Red Wing garbage burner — OUR garbage is a small percentage of what’s burned!

Over the years, it’s become apparent that for some reason, some MPCA staff don’t seem to appreciate Muller. I’ve been to the MPCA with him to do a file review or two, he’s worked against the HERC throughput expansion, Rock-Tenn burner, and all the iterations of the Midtown burner proposed for East Phillips, Rockford, and Rockford Township.

When running Green Delaware, he got through legislation in Delaware prohibiting incinerators near people. Alan’s education about incineration began when working as a consultant for DuPont, marketing incinerators worldwide, with trips to Russia, China, etc. He knows what he’s talking about, the technical details, and methinks that’s what unnerves bureaucrats and technocrats! Anyway, it’s important to know the details.

Last night at the MPCA meeting, Alan addressed some details, including the lead emissions from the Red Wing garbage burner. The MPCA staff present were not familiar with that(!), and wanted specifics, and I’ve found it. First, I found the reference on Alan’s webpage – he had a printout of this chart:

I had also sent a letter to Linda Flanders, our County Commissioner, with that MPCA link (see, Red Wing City Council, it’s not just YOU we’re holding accountable!):

And there’s that MPCA link on Alan’s page and in a footnote of my letter above. Click on the link and get this:

Oh, great, thanks MPCA. So from there I go to Wayback and get the page heading and then … BLANK. So I go ,further back and the furthest back is in 2014, and from there, the page has been redirected, and I’m sent to an MPCA page, but…

The MPCA has eliminated their https://www.pca.state.mn.us/index.php/data/eda-air-quality-searches/eda-air-quality-search-point-source-data.html page! If you search “point source data” there is a link to a map where you can search Minnesota via a number of categories. For Goodhue County, Xcel’s garbage burner is first to show up, with this info, but NOT all the info that was previously disclosed:

For example, the MPCA does not disclose the amount of lead spewed into our air! That’s one of the most important details, as lead has severe impact on those who breathe, particularly children where it measurably lowers IQ. Here is the MPCA chart from last night, similar as above, different format, that was shown last night:

And the most important part of the meeting last night — public participation is what it’s all about, and for decades, I’ve been working on this. They had this handout, which is very similar to those I hand out at the doors of transmission road show meetings and hearings, laying out the steps of the review process:

That’s my writing there, “PERMIT” because think about the word… issuing a permit, as with land-use and any other kind of “permit,” go to the root of the word — it’s all about “permitting” certain activities, uses, and under what circumstances it will be permitted. PERMIT! That’s what it’s all about.

As above, when writing your comments, you need to be specific. The paragraph below from a Notice, similar to the one they’ll send out for us:

RIGHT NOW — Shoot an email to Lisa.Weidemann@state.mn.us, Community Affairs, and to the engineer on the project, Andrea.Behrendt@state.mn.us, to get on the email list for notice when the Draft Permit is issued and public comment opens up. Receiving that notice is important because it specifies the length of the comment period and the deadline for comments, and it also offers advice on what to say in a comment. For example, to get a public hearing, one must REQUEST it, and state why. Here’s the paragraph explaining that from a recent Notice for Mayo in Rochester – it’s roughly a form, and the one for Xcel’s garbage burner will look much like this:

To request a Public Informational Meeting (important so people can learn about what’s at issue, the REAL story) here’s how, from the Notice:

So when you write a comment, if you, friends, neighbors have questions, request a public meeting! MPCA Staff then considers it, weighs the reasons — a meeting is NOT a given! That’s part of why I’m so glad MPCA did come down here in advance.

And then there’s also the Contested Case option, essentially a trial about factual issues related to the air permit. Again, as with the public meeting, you must ASK FOR IT, and give specifics on why it’s necessary, which requires FACTS at issue, and in the request, you must state specific facts that require correction, addition, etc. (FYI, I don’t know of any request for a Contested Case that has been granted, and on behalf of clients, I’ve asked for a few.).

Once the Draft Permit is released, the Notice will state the comment deadline, and will have directions on where to send comments, an email and/or the MPCA site’s comment page or even by snail-mail.

I don’t know how much sense this made for folks not used to this, and unfortunately, the front row on the left was Xcel Energy employees, and there were not that many regular folks in the room, but I’m glad word got out and some reps from local groups attended. There were a few questions from other than Alan and I, and that was good.

Maybe we should have a comment writing session after the Draft Permit and Notice for Comment comes out?!?! Will publish the Draft Permit and Notice for Comment here!