EAST GRAND FORKS — Following the huge fine levied against American Crystal Sugar Company earlier this year, the Polk-Norman-Mahnomen Regional Health Board will become a testing ground for new Minnesota environmental laws.
Polk County Commissioner Joan Lee, who also serves as chair of the health committee, said because there is no precedent, the commission must respond on an ad-hoc basis.
“We’re in uncharted territory,” Lee said.
The health board agreed to a contract with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency that went into effect July 22 to finalize a project to address pollution from American Crystal Sugar’s East Grand Forks plant, which was fined $350,000 earlier this year. The contract is part of a state law passed in 2023 that requires the agency to impose 40% of fines for environmental violations that exceed $250,000. It will be assigned to the local community health committee to deal with any issues that may arise as a result of the violation.
This is the first case since the law was passed where the fine exceeded $250,000.
“It’s a new law and this is the first case where it has been applied, so everyone is still learning how to operate under it,” MPCA spokesman Steven Mickelson said.
Over the next year, the local health boards will be required to meet with residents who may be affected by the contamination to identify their concerns and incorporate them into the project. At the end of the year, the boards will submit a report to the state legislature, which will allocate $140,000 (40 percent of the $350,000 fine) for the three-county health boards’ projects.
“This is very unusual because normally a state board, like the (Minnesota Department of Health) or the MPCA, would report to (the Legislature),” Lee said, “but this report is directly relevant to our local board of health.”
Lee said it was unclear whether the contamination had affected residents in the area.
“I imagine the report will include a holistic process of what we should do to engage the community,” Lee said. “And then, you know, we decide X, Y and Z, but why did we decide that?”
In April, the MPCA announced the fines it assessed against American Crystal Sugar Co. for incidents that occurred between 2020 and 2022. According to the MPCA’s website, the fines are part of a settlement agreement, a negotiated civil settlement used in situations of more serious environmental violations.
“A settlement agreement is a negotiated settlement where both parties meet, discuss the matter and say, ‘Here’s what we’ve observed, and here’s what we’re proposing as penalties and corrective measures,’ and then the company can continue to negotiate until a settlement is reached,” Mickelson said.
According to the agreement, the MPCA’s review of the plant’s hydrogen sulfide monitoring data for 2020 and 2022 found repeated violations of emissions standards. The report states that in 2020, there were 158 violations for exceeding hydrogen sulfide emissions limits. In 2022, there were 40 violations.
The source of these emissions is the factory’s ponds where concentrated sugar beet juice is collected for processing. As organic matter decomposes, it releases foul-smelling hydrogen sulfide.
In a statement to the Herald, American Crystal Sugar said the emissions are not at levels that pose a danger to employees, surrounding areas or wildlife, but that it has been working aggressively to eliminate hydrogen sulfide emissions and address the issues outlined in the agreement.
“(American Crystal Sugar) takes these efforts seriously,” the company said in a statement. “To prevent a similar incident, we have modified our water management practices and installed additional water treatment equipment to ensure our plant’s (hydrogen sulfide) emissions are in compliance with MPCA regulations.”
Crystal Sugar said the settlement included other violations, such as excessive particulate matter emissions, but the hydrogen sulfide penalty was the main one.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s fact sheet on hydrogen sulfide, the respiratory and nervous systems are most sensitive to hydrogen sulfide toxicity in humans. Exposure to low concentrations of hydrogen sulfide can cause irritation to the eyes, nose, and throat, and people with asthma may have difficulty breathing. It can also cause headaches, memory loss, fatigue, and problems with balance.
According to the report, brief exposure to high concentrations can cause loss of consciousness. In such cases, people usually regain consciousness without other effects associated with exposure to the chemical. However, some people may experience permanent or long-term effects, including headaches, poor memory and reduced motor function.
As part of the agreement, the facility had to submit a plan to the MPCA on how it would address the violations outlined in the report and take several corrective actions to reduce emissions within acceptable limits. Mickelson said American Crystal Sugar completed all corrective actions within the required 60-day deadline.
Mickelson said the amount of the penalty included in the settlement agreement is the result of several factors typically considered in such cases, including the facility’s past history, the damage that could be caused by the contamination and the profits the company made by failing to comply with environmental laws.
“So all of those factors were taken into consideration in this case,” Mickelson said, “as well as the fact that these could have been released into the atmosphere and pose a significant threat to the environment and potentially to human health.”
As for whether such fines are common at such plants, Mickelson said it’s hard to say.
“From a regulator’s perspective, of course you don’t want to see violations, and neither do companies,” Mickelson said, “but violations do happen, especially in large, complex operations.”
Over the past 20 years, the MPCA has conducted 12 air quality enforcement actions, including this one, against American Crystal Sugar’s East Grand Forks plant, resulting in more than $700,000 in fines. The MPCA has also conducted nine water quality enforcement actions against the plant, resulting in just over $71,000 in fines.
Across the Red River, Grand Forks is also a topic of discussion because emissions are an issue that crosses state lines.
“American Crystal is in Minnesota, but the winds change,” Lee said. “There are a lot of unknowns.”
According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s detailed facility report on the plant, the plant ranks in the top 90th percentile in Minnesota for multiple environmental justice concerns, including wastewater discharges and proximity to risk management plan facilities.
In the report, the EPA used population data from the American Community Survey to estimate that about 2,010 people live within a one-mile radius of the plant, of which nearly a quarter are people of color and 34 percent are low-income.