HENNEPIN COUNTY DEFIES LEGAL DEMANDS ON HERC ASH; DAKOTA COUNTY RESIDENTS SPEAK OUT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
On Behalf of the Minnesota Environmental Justice Table and Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy
June 26, 2026
Contact: Geoff Dittberner, 612-309-6304, geoff@mnejtable.org
HENNEPIN COUNTY DEFIES LEGAL DEMANDS ON HERC ASH; DAKOTA COUNTY RESIDENTS SPEAK OUT
MINNEAPOLIS — Hennepin County this week refused to amend its solid waste plan to comply with state law governing incinerator ash, while Dakota County residents spoke out at a public forum about toxic ash from the HERC trash burner being dumped near their homes, rivers and open land.
Video from the public forum is available at: https://facebook.com/61551857050320/videos/1380503857261084/
The Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy sent a formal demand letter to Hennepin County on June 10 under Minn. Stat. §115A.97, which requires counties that rely on waste incineration to develop strategies for reducing the toxicity and quantity of incinerator ash. MCEA gave the county 10 days to respond. The county's 2024-2029 solid waste plan makes no mention of ash. On Thursday, the county declined to amend its plan. The demand letter is available at:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B104LICBVGSGR2i9i8eGL7C9J1ilu2Pg/view?usp=drive_link
In its response, the county claimed its existing household hazardous waste program constitutes compliance with state law and pointed to MPCA approval of its solid waste plan as justification for taking no further action. MCEA rejected this position as an attempt to relabel Hennepin County’s general-purpose programs as a lawful ash management strategy, even though they were never designed for that purpose. Effective ash-management strategies are commercially available and widely deployed.
MCEA directed the County to existing techniques to chemically extract or stabilize toxins in incinerator ash.Yet, Hennepin County has not adopted these methods at the HERC, and the county's plan fails to clearly state strategies to reduce the toxicity or quantity of incinerator ash, as state law requires.
MCEA lawyers also explained that Hennepin County, not MPCA, is responsible for complying with state law on incinerator ash law. State officials have not reviewed or excused Hennepin County’s noncompliance with Minn. Stat. §115A.97, according to documents reviewed by MCEA.
Hennepin County's point person on HERC, Assistant Director of Environment and Energy David McNary, also serves as Secretary-Treasurer of the Minnesota Resource Recovery Association, the waste incineration industry trade group that recently released a report on PFAS destruction that drew national criticism from independent scientists.
Luke Norquist, Staff Attorney at the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, said the county's refusal leaves MCEA no choice but to consider legal action.
"In response to a communication about Hennepin County's failure to follow state law on incinerator ash, the county has refused to take corrective action by the requested deadline. We will be looking at options to ensure legal compliance in the coming days."
Professor Leslie Myint, Research Director for the Minnesota Environmental Justice Table, said the county's silence on ash has left Dakota County residents in the dark about risks in their own backyard.
"All the evidence suggests this is a great potential harm. The fact that Dakota County residents haven't known about it is unconscionable."
Anita Martinez, a 13-year resident of Inver Grove Heights, said she was shocked to learn the HERC trash burner's pollution had followed her from Minneapolis to Dakota County.
"Ash isn't ordinary trash. It's concentrated -- dense with lead, cadmium, mercury, dioxins and the forever chemicals that don't break down and don't disappear. The county's own waste plan does not even mention the ash -- not once. They are not allowed to look away. And that is exactly what they have done."
The HERC trash burner, which has operated for 37 years near a historically Black neighborhood in North Minneapolis, ships its toxic ash across the metro to the SKB industrial landfill in Dakota County, less than a mile from Spring Lake Park Reserve and the Mississippi River.
Lee Stoe, an Apple Valley resident who joined Thursday's virtual forum, knows what it takes to stop an incinerator. He helped defeat a proposed facility in Dakota County in 1990.
"In 1990 we fought an incinerator for Dakota County that was going to be near my house. I was just a plain old person but we showed up at those meetings and we won. I can't believe this is still going on."
Community members and MNEJT staff are available for interviews.
Background
The HERC trash burner has operated for 37 years near a historically Black neighborhood in North Minneapolis. It is the largest industrial polluter in Hennepin County, emitting more nitrogen oxide than any other facility in the county. Its particulate emissions cause at least one to two premature deaths per year based on particulate matter alone according to EPA modeling, and over $24 million in annual health damages. Seventy percent of its waste stream is recyclable or compostable. The facility consumes 200 million gallons of treated Minneapolis drinking water every year -- more than every Minnesota data center proposal that has publicly disclosed its water use.
The HERC trash burner ships its ash to the SKB industrial landfill in Dakota County, less than a mile from Spring Lake Park Reserve and the Mississippi River. Incinerator ash contains concentrated levels of lead, mercury, cadmium, dioxins and PFAS "forever chemicals." A recent Guardian investigation found that trash incinerators across the country fail to destroy PFAS, releasing them into surrounding communities. HERC has no PFAS monitoring requirements under its current permit, and there are no federal requirements for PFAS leachate monitoring at industrial landfills like SKB. Community members in Dakota County have raised longstanding questions about SKB's operations and its proximity to the Mississippi River and Spring Lake Park Reserve, where Dakota County has undertaken a bison reintroduction program.
About the Minnesota Environmental Justice Table
The Minnesota Environmental Justice Table (MNEJT) has a record of transformative policy and campaigns, including Minnesota's landmark 2023 Cumulative Impacts Law, which requires the state to account for the concentration of pollution in frontline communities; policies to strengthen landfill standards; and, through the Minnesota Zero Waste Coalition and work with the City of Minneapolis, MNEJT is working to transform our waste system away from burning and burying to regeneration and sustainability via movement-building and policies with organics recycling, decentralized waste management, extended producer responsibility, and elimination of single-use plastics.