Midtown Incinerator Information

A list of important links are available at the end of this post.

The City of Minneapolis has tentatively agreed to sell land at 2850 20th Avenue South -- the former location of the South Transfer Station -- to a private, for-profit enterprise that plans to build an incinerator to generate electrical power and steam heat. It will pump smoke and toxic particulates into the air we breathe. The enterprise -- called "Midtown Eco Energy, LLC" (MEE) -- has been hailed by the developers as a green and ecologically friendly project because it will derive energy from wood instead of coal.

The project is anything but green (see links below for sources):

• The proposed Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) permit will allow the burner to pump ONE MILLION POUNDS PER YEAR of health-damaging air pollutants into the air through a 140 foot smokestack including MERCURY, DIOXIN, ARSENIC, LEAD, AMMONIA, SUFURIC ACID, and FORMALDEHYDE. The people working in the facility will be hit hardest by the pollution but the facility is near many densely-populated neighborhoods, affecting countless Twin Cities residents.

• Investors in the MEE incinerator project have said they will not pollute to the extent allowed by the permit because they plan to burn urban wood. Even if the facility only burns wood it will pollute the air we breathe. Trees are nature's air filters -- they do us all a favor by absorbing the toxins in our air. Urban trees contain toxins such as lead and mercury. When we burn these trees we release the toxins back into the air.

• The Green Institute stated in a March 2007 report that there is not enough wood available and that a biomass burner at Lake and Hiawatha is not economically feasible. Anders Rydaker, President of District Energy St. Paul, has said that his facility is already buying the available urban wood waste in the Twin Cities metro area and that this wood only accounts for 60% of his facility's needs. The Midtown incinerator will therefore have to rely on other burnable fuel besides urban trees.
  

• Investors in the MEE project have admitted that they may have to burn "clean" construction waste. Construction waste includes plywood, particle board, strand board, and other types of products bound by glues and resins (all of which is apparently allowed by the MPCA permit). It may also include incidental plastic waste (such as discarded PVC pipe). Burned plastics emit dioxins. Short of oxygen-free air, dioxin-contaminated air is about as bad as it gets for human beings because dioxins never leave your body and even a tiny concentration of dixoins can hurt you. Dioxins are most harmful to breast-feeding infants and cause -- among a host of bad effects -- immunotoxicity, reproductive deficiencies, diminished endocrine production and cancer.
  

• The proponents of this project say it will reduce CO2 emissions by creating electricity with wood instead of coal. But even wood burning -- unlike other energy alternatives like solar, wind or recycling programs -- produces greenhouse gases. Moreover, the project will require an estimated TWENTY-FIVE SEMI-TRACTOR TRAILER DELIVERIES PER DAY. If these trucks are bringing wood from outside the metro area, the CO2 and other greenhouse gases in their fuel emissions will offset any CO2 reductions that have been lauded by the Midtown project.

• MEE argues that after we build another incinerator the existing coal plants that we depend on for electricity will reduce their output, resulting in a net reduction in greenhouse gases. The economics behind a supply-side emission analysis are far more complex than this. But there is one thing we do know: coal plants have huge overhead costs and are likely to operate at full capacity so long as there is a supply of coal. Another incinerator in Minneapolis will not reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions because it will not take any coal plants offline. The MEE burner would instead artificially drive demand for electricity because it would be paid for largely by government bonding.
  

• If the burner goes up it will drive out recycling, resource conservation and waste reduction in our city. The burner will depend on fresh new loads of fuel every day -- be it loads of wood or whatever else slips into the fire. The private owners will be driven to burn materials in order to pay off the bonds (unless they default on them, in which case the taxpayers will be left holding the bag). The need to feed the burner will discourage truly green solutions to energy issues in the Twin Cities for years to come.

WCCO-TV recently ran a story about how asthma is becoming an epidemic among children in our state. Even a "clean" wood-burning furnace in the middle of our city will contribute to increased asthma rates among children. The State of Delaware, in recognition of the problem with waste incinerators, has gone so far as to enact a statute forbidding the construction of incinerators within THREE MILES of any residence, church, school or hospital.

Here are a selection of websites and links with more information about the project and about the problems with biomass burners:

"Goodman's Actions on Burner Questioned" - a Dec 24, 2007 Star Tribune article addressing the Minneapolis City Councilperson Lisa Goodman's conflict of interest: she is both an investor in the burner and the lead sponsor of the City Resolutions that would give the burner the green light.

"Project isn't Catching Fire With Neighbors" - a Dec 19, 2007 Star Tribune article.

US: Waste Incinerators Making a Comeback - a 2006 CorpWatch.com article about the current trends and dangers, and about why government officials are often seduced into supporting them.

"Green Fuel or Greenwashing?" -- a Twin Cities Daily Planet article that provides good background information along with a discussion of the issues.

Midtown Eco Energy, LLC -- the private developer's website. The fine print on the actual pollution allowances sought by the project is contained in Midtown Eco Energy, LLC's MPCA Permit Application.

Neighbors Against the Burner -- a Twin Cities organization created to oppose the St. Paul Rock-Tenn Plant and the Midtown project.

"A Kinder, Gentler Smokestack" -- a September 5, 2007 City Pages article.

"Project isn't catching fire with neighbors" -- a December 20, 2007 StarTribune article.

Green Institute's December 7, 2007 comment letter to MPCA expressing its concerns about the current permit.

Green Delaware Alert -- announcing passage of the Delaware ban on incinerators.

Connett, Paul, 1998, “Municipal waste incineration: a poor solution for the twenty first century."

Michelle Allsopp, Pat Costner and Paul Johnson. 2001 “Incineration and human health.” Greenpeace Research Laboratories, University of Exeter, UK.

National Resource Council. 2000. “Waste incineration and public health.” Washington, D.C., National Academy Press.

Ewall, Mike. 2000. “The Burning issues with Biomass.” Green Energy.