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Two regions of Minnesota are suffering far worse air quality than others. Here's why. • Minnesota Reformer [1]
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Date: 2025-07-24
Minnesotans are again confronting hazy, choking air due to smoke from wildfires blazing through Canada. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has issued air quality warnings, and in some places, officials are cautioning even the healthiest residents to stay inside.
But in some parts of the state, under all that smoke is a more permanent threat to air quality — toxic chemicals released into the air by manufacturing or mining processes.
Areas surrounding St. Cloud and northwest of the city, as well as southern parts of the state around Albert Lea, have some of the highest rates of air toxins in the entire nation, according to EJScreen, a mapping tool previously maintained by the EPA and now run by nonprofit Public Environmental Data Partners.
But when it comes to air toxins, those two specific regions are the exceptions.
These chemicals, also known as hazardous air pollutants, are a part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxic Release Inventory, or TRI, which is a list of nearly 800 chemicals that come from manufacturing, metal mining, electric power generation, chemical manufacturing and hazardous waste treatment. They are nationally regulated, and facilities that produce significant amounts of them must report their emissions.
“They can cause things like cancer outcomes,” said Jesse Berman, an associate professor of environmental health sciences at the University of Minnesota. “But the thing about hazardous air pollutants is they are not ubiquitous. They’re not found everywhere. They’re primarily from manufacturing sources, and they’re going to be in much smaller quantities.”
On the state level, up until recently, Minnesota did not have strong requirements for those facilities.
That changed in 2023, when the Legislature included new reporting requirements for these types of air toxins in the 7-county metro as a part of a larger environmental spending package.
The MPCA is undergoing rulemaking to determine the specifics of regulating these toxins; enforcement will follow. The agency has three years to modify permits based on those new regulations.
“The rules are intended to regulate air toxics in the Twin Cities metro area and consider environmental justice area residents’ exposure to facilities’ air toxics emissions,” a MPCA spokesperson wrote, adding that they anticipate draft rules by May 2026.
The Legislature and the MPCA have not always been on the same page about how to enforce air toxin regulations, however.
“Ever since I got in the Legislature, until now, the (MPCA) has said that we don’t need to actually do what we did in this proposal or to regulate, because the commissioner already had the authority to investigate and do the work to protect Minnesotans,” said Rep. Fue Lee, a Minneapolis Democrat. His constituents called for him to push for stricter air regulations, he said.
Even within the 7-county metro region covered by the 2023 bill, some local organizers hope to see the MPCA doing more.
Mateo Frumholtz, a University of Minnesota graduate student and Twin Cities environmental activist, cited facilities within the region that posed significant health risks to residents, including the Smith Foundry in the Minneapolis neighborhood of East Phillips that was shut down by the EPA for failing to control its pollution; and the Northern Iron Foundry in St. Paul, which is in a dispute with the MPCA over its permit due to non-compliance with air quality standards. In both cases, Frumholtz said, neighbors had fought long and hard to have existing pollution standards enforced by state and federal officials.
Under the new rules, however, the regions of the state with the greatest toxic air releases won’t face new regulations; manufacturers like Pro Manufacturing, a metal manufacturer in Albert Lea, and Polar Tank Trailer, a trailer manufacturer in Holdingford just outside St. Cloud, will be exempt from any of these new rules.
Greater Minnesota legislators concerned with protecting manufacturing jobs in their regions opposed expanding the new regulations beyond the metro, Lee said. “It is my hope that in the near future, that we can actually make this statewide,” he added.
Pro Manufacturing and Polar Tank Trailer hold the highest of what’s known as a risk-screening environmental indicators score, or RSEI score, in their respective counties, indicating high potential for harmful health risks. Both release chromium and its compounds, which are associated with lung cancer and nasal and sinus cancer.
(Neither company, nor the mayors of St. Cloud and Albert Lea, returned inquiries from the Reformer.)
In the counties with high TRI releases, two other chemicals are even more prevalent. Styrene, found in petroleum and natural gas, is a major risk factor in Stearns County. In Freeborn County, the highest air releases are from methanol, a highly flammable liquid used in aerosol cans.
But factories with chromium, like Pro Manufacturing and Polar Tank Trailer, have the highest potential to cause serious health risks in their communities.
Williams, the U scientist, said Minnesota needs more precise measurements as well as more data on the specific health impacts of those chemicals. While the EPA and MPCA are doing some of that reporting, more can be done, he said.
“I think for most neighborhoods in most places, we just don’t know what we’re being exposed to. We don’t know what’s being released. We don’t know where it’s coming from. We don’t know what’s happening to it while it’s in the air. We don’t know how much is making it into our homes,” he said.
Berman said piloting the new regulations in the metro is prudent. “Sometimes having a targeted regulation can be a good thing. As a public health person, we want to avoid leaving people out, but sometimes you have to make decisions where you can help a very large proportion of the population, especially when they might be at greater risk.”
These new rules are coming even as the Trump administration is rolling back a number of key environmental protections. A new policy would allow coal plants and other industrial facilities with high pollution rates to petition the White House directly for an exemption from Biden-era Clean Air Act rules.
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