Hennepin County votes to close HERC, but critics say it’s not soon enough

Signs of protest lined the windows looking into the Hennepin County board chamber on Oct. 24, when commissioners voted on a controversial plan to close a downtown trash incinerator. Photo by David Pierini

By David Pierini, Editor
Hennepin County commissioners formerly directed staff to develop a formal plan to close the HERC, a downtown trash incinerator activists and Northside residents say has been a notorious air polluter since it opened 34 years ago.

But the unanimous vote on Oct. 24 was met with disappointment from some 20 activists and residents who held protest signs outside the county board chambers.

The timeline for the HERC’s shutdown is 2028 to 2040, much too long a wait for opponents who were pressing for a 2025 closure.

Nazir Khan, co-director of the Minnesota Environmental Justice Table, called the board’s closure plan unacceptable.
“The 2028 date was just to appease us make us think that we should just go away and trust them,” Khan said. “That’s not going to happen. We’re going to increase the pressure.”

Commissioners acknowledged the plan lacks the desired speed and vowed to snuff its burners as soon as possible. But ASAP comes with a lengthy list of conditions for the county to phase out an incinerator that consumes 1,000 tons of garbage each day.

Closure, commissioners said, would arrive sooner if state lawmakers pursue policy actions that prioritize zero waste, composting and recycling within communities. They would need to lift barriers to composting and recycling, especially in apartment complexes, and set new rules on collection and hauling, industrial packaging and material bans on landfills.

“I’m going to say something which may be heresy, but this is the easy part,” said Commissioner Jeffrey Lunde. “There’s a bunch of stuff from this point forward on the cities, on the state... there’s a lot of players.”

The Democratic-controlled legislature currently in Saint Paul provides a good opening for the county. In the spring, lawmakers awarded the county $25 million to build an anaerobic digester on the condition it writes a plan to close the HERC.

The new facility would handle organic waste (from food scraps to biodegradable packaging) and convert into fertilizer, compost soil and bio gas. This would remove some of the waste currently sent to the incinerator.

Commissioners Irene Fernando and Angela Conley represent communities disproportionately impacted by pollution. North Minneapolis, which is in Fernando’s district, has the worst rates for respiratory illness. Both commissioners favor closing HERC sooner but knew the plan would need a broader timeline to garner yes votes from other commissioners.

“So, for me, it’s imperative and in alliance with several of our goals as a county, including our declaration that racism is a public health crisis,” Conley said at a meeting of the Administrations, Operations and Budget Committee on Oct. 10. “HERC is a facility that is affecting people’s health and, primarily, these are black and brown people.”

Plans can unravel with one election. More cautious commissioners at the Oct. 10 meeting insisted on a longer timeline.

“I would love to put a better date on this, but my problem is I don’t know what kind of legislature we’re going to have,” said Commissioner Debbie Goettel, during a meeting of the board’s Administration, Operations and Budget Committee. “If it swings – and they do often – they will set us backward. It’s just because of that. Not knowing what we face in the future is what I’m concerned with.”

The county recently adopted a zero-waste plan with the goal of closing HERC, formally known as the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center. While the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency says its emissions consistently meet safety standards, environmentalists say the tests do not measure everything that goes in the air.

Miasia Wise Asia, a Northside resident, said if closure drags on, “2040 is entirely too late.”

“So much of the community has shown up at meetings and rallies so to me, this feels like a slap in the face,” she said. “So for them to say that they are listening to community and are making a decision that is based on our health and well-being, it doesn’t feel that way at all.”