(Editor's Note: First in a Series of in-depth reporting on NMR and the PUC.)

Northern Metals, a recycling company based in Becker’s Industrial Park, this week announced equipment upgrades to augment its state of the art metal shredding facility.  With the addition of the new control equipment, company Chief Operating Officer Scott Helberg says there will be nothing left the company can add to the environmental mitigation efforts at the one-of-a-kind facility.

“It is important to us to do everything we can because we see this type of facility as the future of recycling,” Helberg said.  “We will continue to invest in technology to be the cleanest metal shredder not only in Minnesota, but anywhere on earth.”

Last week, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) announced via a press release that they had fined Northern Metals $12,000 for allegedly exceeding air emissions standards in 2021. Northern Metals is owned by parent company EMR, one of the largest metal recyclers in the world.

According to Helberg, the MPCA allegations were related to a time period when the initial testing of newly installed pollution control equipment was occurring at the Becker facility.

“Although these emissions allegedly exceeded the permit limit (which is typical during the start up phase) the emissions did not cause or contribute to any exceedance of actual air quality standards,” Helberg stated.  “Due to COVID travel restrictions at the time of start-up and related supply chain delays, Northern Metals requested additional time to retest.  The MPCA wrongly denied this request.”

EMR’s Becker facility is the only shredder in the state that is fully contained within an enclosed building structure. At least five other shredders operate in Minnesota in an open-air manner, meaning that any materials or associated pollutants are immediately transmitted into the atmosphere. Because the Becker plant is self-contained, they are required to test for a variety of substances that cannot be monitored at other open-air facilities.

The Patriot last Wednesday reached out to the MPCA with a formal request to address several questions surrounding their recent press release, but received no response or acknowledgement of the request as of Tuesday evening.  

“We agreed to enter this stipulation with no admission of any liability or wrongdoing and (agreed to) pay a fine to amicably resolve the matter with MPCA,” Helberg said, referencing last week’s MPCA action.

The MPCA release referenced Northern Metals’ air quality permit, which requires the company “to perform emissions tests on a regular schedule for pollutants such as particulate matter, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), polychlorinated (PCBs), mercury, and other hazardous air pollutants (HAPs).”

Helberg asserts that the company in fact exceeded those testing parameters and was also voluntarily testing for acid gas emissions. The company was doing so in an effort to obtain any and all data related to their recycling functions.

“There’s no other facility like this anywhere,” Helberg said. “We voluntarily tested for acid gas emissions when we had no requirement to do so. When we found that it was potentially present in the form of fine particulate matter, we immediately turned to solutions that we could put in place.”

The company worked with consultants and determined that the cause of the issue had to do with the plant’s Thermal Oxidizer, which treats potential VOC’s by heating the air output to a temperate of between 1,550 and 1,650 degrees.

With the new system upgrades, every available piece of pollution control equipment will be operating at the Becker site.

For Helberg, it’s a commitment his company makes to become a valuable asset to the community.

“Northern Metals has agreed to employ system upgrades and remains committed to operating its industry leading, state of the art shredding facility in a manner that protects the community and air quality,” Helberg said.

Public Opening

Helberg also announced that his company plans to be open to the general public this summer.  At that time, residents will be able to bring items from aluminum cans to copper, brass and even worn out automobiles to the facility and go home with a check for the value of the materials.

“It’s just another way that we feel we bring value to the community,” Helberg said. “It is our hope that those dollars will stay in Becker and be spent in the local business community.”

Next

Up next in the Patriot’s occasional series regarding shredding operations in Minnesota, we will take a look at the status of recycling in the state, including an overview of other companies and the environmental impacts on their local host communities.