Part III of a III Part Series
By H. LYNN ADELSMAN and ROB HENDRICKSON
It’s hard to know exactly which toxins are in our air and how much we inhale. What we do know is some of our neighbors have trouble breathing at certain times of day. We know too many children with asthma and heart problems; elders with COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) and other lung issues. We know the smells of certain buildings; the heavy air in our parks; the sounds and feelings of our streets.
As we look at this article’s map, we can see it isn’t just one thing giving rise to these experiences when you live in the Phillips community.
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Open in new tab A map highlighting pollution sources in Phillips. This includes an experimental traffic exposure layer based on 2022 Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT) from MnDOT with values displayed as percentages of the highest value found in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area. Dispersion was modeled using vehicle counts from all roadways and convolution with a non-normalized, Gaussian kernel using the following parameters: raster cell size = 50 meters, sigma = 16, max bandwidth = 500 meters.*
From industrial facilities, hospitals, and interstates to heavy vehicles and sirens thundering down treeless roads, “Cumulative impacts” is a way to look at all of these things together – across space (How does Phillips compare to Southwest Minneapolis?), across pollutants (Do Bituminous Roadways’ Carbon Monoxide and Smith Foundry’s Particulate Matter mix and make asthma attacks worse?), and across time (Has living in Phillips for over 20 years made my neighbor more susceptible to kidney disease?).
Where we’ve been
In 2008 the Clark-Berglund Environmental Justice Law passed requiring the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) to consider cumulative impacts before giving out industrial air permits in Phillips. This was a first in the nation with little guiding language from the legislation, so the MPCA invented its own rules.
A recent example of the process they created is Abbott Northwestern Hospital’s expansion, with new boilers and generators to supply heat to their buildings and other nearby hospitals. At the only public meeting in August, the MPCA reported that they did not need to look at long-term health outcomes from the new, higher emission levels because they weren’t expected to be significant for any single pollutant. So they did not investigate the long term cumulative impacts but admitted Particulate Matter 2.5 (PM2.5) will increase once the new utility plant is on line. Their analysis of short-term exposures found the cumulative impacts to be “insignificant.”
As community members attending the meeting (there were about twice as many government and hospital representatives than community individuals), we asked questions and were encouraged to make a public comment before the deadline which was a little over a week away.
As reported by the alley last September, Abbott Northwestern started construction before going through the permitting process as required by law. Without notifying the MPCA, Abbott Northwestern had already installed the new heating equipment. This premature construction led to a $50,000 fine and a requirement to install “Ultra low NOx burners.”
At this time, the MPCA is beginning the permitting process with Smith Foundry using these same rules.
Where we’re going
In the Spring of 2023, a new law called the Frontline Communities Protection Act was passed that makes cumulative impact assessments required in Environmental Justice areas (like Phillips) across the entire state. Importantly, the MPCA is required to co-create the rules of this law with community by 2026, and there will be a number of opportunities to weigh in in the coming years (see: https://www.pca.state.mn.us/get-engaged/cumulative-impacts).
Keeping the Abbott Northwestern permit meeting fresh in our mind, we attended the MPCA’s cumulative impacts meeting on September 14th. There was a sense that the agency truly wanted to work with community, but the concept seemed a little foreign to them and comments were only accepted online or in writing. At this time, they’ve asked for input in defining “substantial adverse health and environmental impacts” and other items related to the analysis, as well as “community benefit agreements” which will be unique contracts between companies and the MPCA that consider the needs of each impacted neighborhood.
MPCA acknowledged they had already begun ongoing conversations with companies. As community representatives noted, the polluters have resources to lobby for business over health. People urged for more intentional outreach and meetings, to be announced more broadly via mail, flyers in parks, libraries, community centers and to consult The Dakota Nation – the original and true caretakers of the so-called “Twin Cities Metropolitan Area” – for the duration of the three year process.
Resiliency
Coming off the historic win for the East Phillips’ Urban Farm, there is a lot of momentum in the Environmental Justice movement. Overcoming all odds, our community rejected more pollution (primarily from mobile sources – which was used as a loophole around the Clark-Berglin Law) and replaced it with a climate resilience hub.
Though the MPCA verbally expressed that they value community input, history tells us we will need to diligently monitor and participate in the rulemaking process and hold them accountable. Ultimately, we must teach the MPCA to understand our lived experiences and put people’s health and well-being before profits, or we may end up exactly where we were before this legislation.
For sources, data, and more information see: https://linktr.ee/minneapolis_airquality
See Part I: After Decades of Poor Air in Phillips, Proof: Pollutants Harm Health
See Part II: Air Quality and Cumulative Impacts
* The print version of this article published the max bandwidth of the Gaussian kernel to be 1000 meters; the authors wrote in and corrected this to be 500 meters.
