St. Paul, MN - Yesterday, Northern Iron LLC announced they are ending operations in St. Paul by the end of the year. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) had been working with Northern Iron to issue them a permit, which would have been designed to protect air quality for Eastsiders while the foundry operates.
Rep. Liz Lee (DFL - St. Paul), who represents the area, is calling for a full report from the MPCA so that Eastsiders can better understand the impacts of lead and other pollutants on the community during their years of operation.
“Hardworking Eastsiders deserve environmental justice,” said Rep. Lee. “Because Northern Iron has never conducted adequate analysis nor transparently shared information they have with MPCA, we may never know the full picture. But our community deserves access to the information that has come to light as Northern Iron has fought the permit process these past years in the courts.”
“Eastsiders deserve to know what they have been exposed to all these years; our community deserves to understand Northern Iron’s pollution impact on their health.”
“Now that the pending permit revocation case will come to a close, I’m calling on the MPCA to release a full, transparent report detailing how these emissions violations happened, what we know about those emissions, and what is being done to mitigate ongoing pollution in our community.”
Since 2024, MPCA’s air emissions modeling has shown Northern Iron exceeded lead and fine particulate standards. Northern Iron LLC has announced it is closing permanently in December after years of refusing to cooperate with regulators.
###