The Minnesota Polluition Control Agency has postponed a planned information meeting on a major amendment to the pollution permit governing a riverside metal shredder in north Minneapolis.

The agency announced days ago that it would hold the meeting on Feb, 14, a popular date night. But it said Friday that a meeting on that date was off, and gave no new date, although spokesman Mike Rafferty said the meeting will be rescheduled.

Rafferty said MPCA would look for a date that "would work for the community." But he had no explanation for why the Feb. 14 date wouldn't meet that criterion.

State Rep. Phyllis Kahn lives more than a mile downstream from the 2800 Pacific St. shredder. She said that she and other area legislators told agency Commissioner Paul Aasen this week that they are concerned that the agency is considering too hastily shredder's permit amendment.

But she said that to her knowledge, concerned legislators made no request to delay the Feb. 14 meeting, at which the agency's staff was to present information about the proposed amendment and and a study of accompanying environmental impacts. The agency is going ahead with an extended public comment period on the permit that was announced at the same time as the meeting. That opportunity began Friday and ends on Feb. 28.

Northern Metal Recycling proposed revamping its permit after it finally began operating in 2009 and was found not to be meeting limits set when it got its original state permit in 1998. The company wants to raise selected pollution limits, loosen restrictions on what materials may be shredded and reduce the frequency of pollution testing.