Minnesota’s pollution complaint system faulted in report on Smith Foundry

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency failed to properly track complaints about a polluting foundry in south Minneapolis, according to a report released Thursday by the state Office of the Legislative Auditor.

Smith Foundry, an iron casting site that operated in Minneapolis' diverse East Phillips neighborhood for over a century, was a source of neighborhood discontent for decades. Between 2018 and 2023, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) received 18 complaints about the site, but didn’t have any record of its response for a third of those, the report said.

Other complaints mentioning bad smells were sent on to the city of Minneapolis. State law has since changed, and MPCA is now in charge of investigating odor complaints. The Legislative Auditor’s report did not find the agency had fallen short on investigating the smells since it became responsible for them in May 2023.

The findings are similar to what the Star Tribune found in 2023: When many neighbors complained about smells from the foundry, their concerns were shuttled to the city of Minneapolis, and mostly went nowhere.

The agency is now “creating a process to better coordinate on complaints with local jurisdictions,” spokeswoman Becky Lentz wrote in an email. MPCA also told the Legislative Auditor that it plans to introduce a new reporting system, which will allow the public to upload pictures and location information with their cellphones.

Allison Lind, a nurse whose young son attends a day care across from the former foundry site, was one of the people who filed a complaint with MPCA. Because she mentioned odors, the complaint was re-directed to the city of Minneapolis.

“Our complaints about pollution went through the cracks, and were unaddressed,” Lind said.

She added that the report showed MPCA needed to “dramatically improve” enforcement of pollution permits.

In the spring of 2023, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency started investigating Smith for excessive pollution after a surprise visit. The nearby community didn’t learn of the investigation until months later. That sparked a wave of anger against MPCA, which some neighbors said hadn’t taken their concerns seriously.

During the case, MPCA also publicly disagreed at one point with the EPA, saying it did not have the data to show the foundry was breaking air quality rules as the federal government alleged.

That discrepancy was another focus of the Legislative Auditor. The report found that MPCA had used a different method to calculate emissions than the EPA, though state officials later came to agree with the EPA’s conclusion.

“We encourage MPCA to continue working with EPA to resolve any remaining ambiguity in the two agencies’ approaches to measuring compliance with emissions limits,” the report read.

Several changes have made at MPCA since the episode, the agency told the auditor’s office, including the addition of new staff to conduct inspections in historically marginalized neighborhoods.

“MPCA and EPA continue to work together on calculations on a case-by-case basis,” Lentz wrote in her email. “This collaborative work includes consideration of air rules, permits, and the specifics for each facility.”

An EPA settlement eventually limited the operations at Smith and ended the federal pollution case. Then, last summer, the foundry decided to close down entirely, as MPCA sought detailed data required for a new air pollution permit.