Tire Burning in Preston:
A Community on Fire
Community members enjoyed great success in 2005 when the Minnesota
Pollution Control Agency's Citizens Board voted against building
this tire burner in Preston. Proof that grassroots action
WORKS!
Read the background story below, and get involved with our current
clean energy efforts!
Nestled in the beautiful bluff countryside of Southern Minnesota, a community is on fire over a proposal to build the nation's largest tire burning facility in Preston, Minnesota. Heartland Energy and Recycling, LLC plans to burn 10 million tires annually to produce steam and electricity. While Heartland promises 10-23 new jobs in Preston, citizens are concerned about the health of their families and the existing economies (eg. tourism, organic dairies and farms.)
Southeastern Minnesotans for Environmental Protection (SEMEP) filed a lawsuit against the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and Heartland for failure to address key issues in the initial environmental assessment. As a result, a court order sent the issue back to MPCA for further assessment last year. Since then, over 5,000 citizens have asked the MPCA to require in-depth environmental review. In addition, Winona County, Fillmore County, and the City of Decorah, Iowa have passed resolutions calling for environmental review.
Currently, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency stands by its decision to approve Heartland tire burner without in-depth environmental review through an environmental impact statement. Many issues still have not been addressed or raise questions about the confidence of the environmental assessment's predictions versus actual emissions. For a list of these issues, visit www.northstar.sierraclub.org/heartland or call 612-659-9124.
Concerns over air quality are particularly high because Preston is already home to the Pro-Corn ethanol plant, which has caused respiratory problems and eye irritation in Preston residents and like 11 other Minnesota ethanol facilities was fined for polluting beyond its permitted limits.
Residents are concerned because tire burning can produce dangerous pollutants and there has been no in-depth environmental review of the project. The tire burner location is roughly one mile from residences, a daycare, an elementary school, a playground, a nursing home, trout streams, and a public golf course. The South Branch Root River is also nearby — an already polluted river acclaimed for trout fishing.
No in-depth environental review has ever been completed for tire burning using a fluidized bed boiler.
THE CURRENT STATUS OF THE TIREBURNER:
In a lawsuit brought by concerned citizens, a judge has remanded the matter to MPCA to consider a number of open questions and concerns about the environmental review process. The MPCA has released its new findings with a recommendation to the MPCA Citizens' Board to approve Heartland without an environmental impact statement. This issue will be heard at a public meeting on Tuesday, January 25, 2005 at 5:00pm at the MPCA, 520 Lafayette Rd N, St. Paul.
Although Heartland Energy and Recycling successfully pressured the City of Preston to approve $930,000 in tax subsidies through the JOBZ program over the next 10 years, the facility was denied the subsidies by the Fillmore County Board. The plant has received other tax subsidies through the state legislature. To date, no tire burner has operated at a profit without significant tax subsidies.
The Sierra Club and SEMEP are petitioning the EPA to make a decision on how to classify dedicated tires-to-energy facilities. It is our standing, based on review of federal regulations, that Heartland tire burner is a solid waste incinerator, and should be permitted as such. In addition, Heartland has been able to avoid federal regulations under the Clean Air Act for being a "major source" of pollution by altering its proposal. Beyond what we see as a dodging of "major source" regulations, Sierra Club is concerned because of inconsistencies in the amount of tires that will be burned daily, no enforceable limit on how many tires are burned, and the estimation of nitrogen oxide pollution being within a margin of error from "major source" levels. MPCA estimates the following levels:
| PM/PM10 tons per year (tpy) | SO2 (tpy) | NOx (tpy) | CO (tpy) | VOC (tpy) | Lead (tpy) | Single HAP (tpy) | HAP (tpy) | |
| Heartland's Proposed Potential Emission Rate for Total Facility | 70.8/60.8 | 115 | 245 | 122 | 25.6 | 0.25 | 9.0 | 9.45 |
| Major Source Level | 250 | 250 | 250 | 250 | 250 | 10 | 10 | 25 |
Finally, if this plant is built, tax dollars will be wasted and human health risked for a plant which, if operational as proposed, would violate Minnesota law banning the importation of waste tires. This is not how we want to do business in Minnesota.
Objective
Encourage MPCA to require an EIS to investigate the environmental impacts of Heartland before it is built, and gain clarity from the U.S. EPA on classification of tire burners to ensure Heartland meets the federal laws of the Clean Air Act and human health and the environment are protected.
For more information, visit www.semep.org and www.citizensagainstpollution.org.