St. Paul foundry will install new equipment to settle pollution case

A St. Paul foundry will install new pollution filters to settle an enforcement case with the Environmental Protection Agency.

St. Paul Brass and Aluminum Foundry, at 954 Minnehaha Av. in the Frogtown neighborhood, makes castings for the defense industry using several metal alloys, including some that contain lead. The foundry will face a limit on how much lead it can include in those castings as part of the settlement.

“This settlement will significantly reduce emissions and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency will monitor air quality in the area going forward,” EPA Region 5 Administrator Anne Vogel said in a statement.

David Hartigan, the manager of the foundry, wrote in an email that the company spent $65,000 to install new filters.

“The company is pleased to move beyond the EPA’s enforcement action. This settlement will allow St. Paul Foundry to continue focusing on delivering for our customers and providing well-paying jobs in Frogtown,” he wrote.

Neighbors who live near the site said they have long had concerns about pollution from the foundry, which is adjacent to homes and sits at the edge of the Frogtown Park and Farm.

Nura Ahmed has lived in a house directly south of the foundry since 2014. She said she frequently finds a gray dust on her property and worries about eating the produce she grows there. She said she wished the foundry were not so close to homes.

EPA inspectors paid a surprise visit to the site in 2022, according to an inspection report. Agency staff spotted a baghouse, or air filtering device, with no pressure gauge. These industrial filters have to run in a specific pressure range to ensure they’re working. If the pressure is too low, the filter might have a hole. If it’s too high, the filter could be caked with pollutants.

By March 2023, the EPA alleged in a notice of violation that the foundry had not been properly operating that filter and other pollution control equipment. Three months later, the agency issued another violation notice, claiming that the company had failed to show it was complying with specific rules for foundries.

Danielle Swift, who has been monitoring the pollution case for the Frogtown Neighborhood Association, questioned why a fine had not been applied when the EPA fined another metals site, Smith Foundry, $80,000 in the East Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis last year.

“If it weren’t for them having a surprise inspection, they wouldn’t have taken it upon themselves to make these upgrades they are required to do,” Swift said.

At Smith, the EPA alleged the foundry was releasing excessive pollution — an allegation that was never part of the St. Paul case. The EPA said it did not find excessive pollution around the St. Paul site after monitoring in 2024, and the MPCA will now operate a permanent monitor next to the foundry.