Having struck out in their first attempt to incinerate more waste at the county garbage burner next to Target Field, Hennepin County officials are back to take another crack at it.

For the second time in three years, the county and Covanta Energy, which runs the plant, are seeking permission to operate the garbage burner at capacity. That would increase the amount of waste burned annually, now at 365,000 tons, by 40,000 tons or about 11 percent.

Opponents of the county's plan warn about toxic emissions and said the county should focus its waste efforts more intensively on recycling and composting.

County officials said expanded burning would produce more energy for downtown Minneapolis and reduce the garbage hauled to landfills. The added revenue of more than $1 million would help bolster the county's recycling and composting programs, said Environmental Services director Carl Michaud.

The garbage burner's next-door neighbor, home to the Minnesota Twins, isn't concerned about the county proposal. The ballpark uses steam generated by the garbage burner to heat most of its indoor spaces and the field.

"For us, they run a good operation," said Dan Kenney, executive director of the Minnesota Ballpark Authority. "It was built for a larger capacity, and that's what they're seeking to do."

But state Rep. Frank Hornstein, DFL-Minneapolis, who sits on the Legislative Energy Commission, called the move wrong-headed.

"It's not a choice between incinerating and landfilling, because incinerating is a form of landfilling," in that the resulting ash winds up there, he said.

The local neighborhood group hasn't yet weighed in on the county's plan, although its board unanimously supported the burner's expansion when it was first proposed in 2009. "We'll look at it again," said David Frank, board president of the North Loop Neighborhood Association.

Next up: state and city

When the county attempted to expand burning two years ago, it was charged with sidestepping the public process. The environmental impact statement for Target Field provided the basis for the garbage burner's environmental review, but the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) wanted a better assessment.

So county officials labored for months on an environmental worksheet and forwarded it to the state three weeks ago. It found that additional burning would neither violate air-quality standards nor pose health risks, Michaud said.

The MPCA will call a public meeting, perhaps by March, to discuss the environmental assessment, he said. Once the agency's citizens board signs off on the plan, he said, the county will seek an amended conditional-use permit from Minneapolis. Expanded burning could begin late this year, Michaud said.

In an effort to boost recycling, Hennepin County plans to talk to its cities about ways to recycle more and whether it's time to begin composting food and paper residue. The county has extended $3 million in recycling grants this year to encourage food recycling.

But Michaud said a certain amount of waste still will be going to landfills. "You're not going to recycle your way out of the waste problem at this point," he said.

The plant, which now burns an average of 1,000 tons of garbage a day, could burn as much as 1,212 tons daily under the county's proposal -- an increase of 21 percent. But Michaud said that as a practical matter, expanded burning would amount to an 11 percent increase because the plant's boilers are periodically shut down for maintenance work.

Plastics emissions are managed by the burner's air pollution control equipment, he said, while metals are yanked out of the ash with magnets and recycled. Michaud said about 11,000 tons of metal each year is recycled at the burner and that the new plan will yield an additional 1,200 tons.

Hornstein, who has attempted to make garbage burners ineligible for renewable energy credits, said Hennepin County needs to look harder at alternatives. Half of the waste now burned is recyclable, he said. He wants a more thorough environmental impact statement done before expanded burning is permitted.

"It's a disposal method that is wasteful and harmful to the environment," Hornstein said.

Kevin Duchschere • 612-673-4455