As they left last week’s open house and informational meeting held at the Becker Community Center for the new plant Northern Metal Recycling plans to build in Becker, some area residents felt more comfortable with the new facility, some didn’t feel their concerns were addressed, and many were upset that no one from the city was in attendance to answer questions.

 

“My personal feeling is that I don’t feel a big concern with the problem of pollution,” said Becker resident Loren Haataja. “I have a concern with the city. Is the city really doing a traffic and noise assessment? That’s a lot of traffic that will be coming in.”

 

“I’m very frustrated because I don’t think enough of the community knew this was coming and we don’t have a say in it,” said Kami Haataja. “We should. This is our community. This [public meeting] was just done to appease us.”

 

“I think it was a joke,” said a Becker resident who asked not to be identified. “We were not given any information. Where was the city representation? The sand that facility is sitting on will eventually cause all our wells to be in danger.”

 

The open house was held by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) to explain and discuss the Environmental Assessment Worksheet that was used to gather information about potential environmental impacts of the new plant proposed by Northern Metal as well as their Draft Air Emissions Permit.

 

The company plans to construct a scrap-metal recycling plant in Becker’s industrial park, consisting of an enclosed metal shredder, an enclosed ferrous processing building, an enclosed metal recovery plant, an end-of-life vehicle process and a community recycling center. The company expects to bring 85 to 100 jobs to the area.

 

Northern Metal currently operates a facility in Minneapolis, where they have been working to settle and correct emissions violations claims by the MPCA. An agreement was recently reached that has the company paying $2.5 million in costs and penalties. 

 

The Minneapolis facility will be shut down when the new plant in Becker has been completed.

 

“Everything that went wrong with the last location will be taken care of here,” said Don Smith, MPCA air quality permits section manager. “Everything will be under a roof, the site is larger and there are better air pollution controls. It will be done right from the start.”

 

He went on to further explain the 50-acre site will allow any fugitive dust that does escape to most likely drop on the company’s own property. The site in Minneapolis was small and affected local industry and residents. Everything will be indoors at the new facility, which will be state-of-the-art with state-of-the-art equipment. At the Minneapolis location, the shredder was located outside the building.

 

Employees of Northern Metal were also in attendance to answer questions from the public, including Chief Operating Officer Scott Helberg, who explained why Becker was chosen for the company’s new location.

 

“We’re a huge power consumer and we need good infrastructure,” said Helberg. “The rail here is one of the heaviest used for industrial railroad traffic and was built to handle extra capacity. The area is centrally located, there’s access to good roads, and it has an industrial park.”

 

During the brief presentation by the MPCA explaining Northern Metal’s Environmental Assessment Worksheet and Draft Air Emissions Permit, Kelsey Suddard, who wrote the permit, explained the MPCA’s analysis showed that even in a worse-case scenario, no health impacts were expected as air pollution standards at the plant would remain below guidelines.

 

At the presentation’s conclusion, the floor was opened to the public for questions.

 

Asked if similar facilities had been looked at during the analysis, Suddard explained no other facility in the country was completely enclosed like what was being proposed here, so comparisons hadn’t been possible.

 

When questioned about monitoring for air pollution, she stressed monitoring would occur on a daily basis and the company must be in compliance; a public record will be available. Attendees were also assured noise levels at the facility will be well below standards.

 

Among other issues, allowed hours of operation, storm water design, an explanation of how the plant works, traffic and potential pollution from the materials brought in were also discussed at length.

 

With questions showing no signs of stopping, the meeting eventually had to be closed due to time constraints. Wrapping up, the MPCA said Northern Metal has been more heavily scrutinized due to their background, and if any problems or noncompliance was found enforcement action would be taken. 

 

“Northern Metal has taken extra steps to show their good faith effort,” the crowd was told. “At this point we believe they’re doing everything to make this a totally different situation that will meet all our standards.”