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Hastings Creamery struggles with regulators
HASTINGS, Minn. — The Metropolitan Council will temporarily cut off sewer service for a dairy processing company that dates back more than a century, putting the plant’s owners in a tough spot with customers and milk suppliers.
The regional agency says the Hastings Creamery has been out of compliance with its industrial wastewater permit and a recent leak placed a strain on the city’s treatment plant.
“The ongoing release of prohibited materials is putting the wastewater treatment plant in imminent danger and could compromise the health and safety of the Hastings community,” read a statement from the Met Council Saturday evening.
“We have unfortunately recorded six notices of violations of industrial waste permits from the Hastings Creamery in the past seven months. As a result, we are suspending its ability to discharge industrial waste for treatment at the Hastings Wastewater Treatment Plant.”
The creamery processes 150,000 pounds of raw milk each day, purchased from dairy farmers in Minnesota and Wisconsin. It produces a variety of dairy products, some under the Hastings Creamery label and some for other companies and grocery store chains.
“When things are fully staffed, there’s 35 to 40 people that work here. On top of that there’s another 45 farm families that wouldn’t have anywhere to go with their milk,” Justin Malone, one of the creamery’s owners, told KARE.
Malone, a third-generation dairy farmer, bought the creamery with three other farmers two years ago. He pointed out it’s already a tough time in the dairy industry, as some farmers have had to dump milk because they can’t find any processing plants with the capacity to accept it.
That’s one of the reasons the Minnesota Dept. of Agriculture is monitoring the situation, out of concern for producers that would be affected if the creamery decides to stops buying their milk.
Malone said he and his partners were unaware at the time they bought the 1955 plant that the average wastewater discharge had been out of compliance with the Met Council’s standards since 2013.
“We weren’t aware that was in violation of the permit. We’re not blaming that on anyone. We’re just trying to partner with Met Council and get things where they can be okay.”
Once the plant loses its connection to the city sewer system, the only way to stay in operation will be to collect the wastewater on site and truck it to a different wastewater treatment plant that’s equipped to handle the water that comes from the creamery.
The Met Council will continue to monitor the outflow from the plant and may reconnect it to the sewer system after 30 days if enough conditions are met.
“We have a two-year plan to change how the wastewater leaves the creamery. We’re just wanting to try to get to that point without having to shut down, because it’s going to be rally hard on everybody,” Malone said.
The Met Council monitors the levels of FOG — fats, oils, and grease — coming from the creamery, and checks to see if the wastewater is PH-balanced. The long-term solution is to build a small treatment plant at the the creamery, which would cost more than $900,000.
Rep. Shane Hudella, a Republican who represents the Hastings area, said the creamery’s dairy store is part of the fabric of life in the Mississippi River town. Many families, including his own, buy their milk there.
“If it closes it would be pretty tragic news because the creamery’s been a staple in our community for decades and decades,” Rep. Hudella told KARE.
“I would really love to appeal to the chair of the Met Council and Governor Walz to step in and give us a week to figure out what the issues are, and how we can fix them. They want to be compliant.”
Malone said the discharge from the creamery is from milk and cream that is released when changing the machinery from one product to another. There’s also a certain amount lost when the sanitizer fluid moves through the equipment.
“That’s how a creamery operates. You’re flushing lines. You’re changing different kinds of milk, one percent, two percent. You have sanitizers that are flushed out, and you have milk that’s flushed through the lines when you start up again.”
The Met Council’s emergency order cited an incident over Mother’s Day weekend when the water at Hasting wastewater treatment plant turned white, and staff photographed a thick, creamy froth in the aerator section of the plant.
According to the agency’s document, the staff said one of the tanks leaked milk into the sewer system because of a faulty valve. The company was unaware of the leak until a couple of days later and couldn’t determine how much milk escaped the tank.
That led the Met Council staff to estimate the size of the leak by testing the concentrations of milk in samples collected at the wastewater plant and comparing it to how much water the plant used during that time period. The agency came up with an estimate of 169,000 gallons of milk leaked across a 16-hour period between May 12 and May 13.
The staff said the amount would be different if both cream and milk entered the system, guessing it would be 10,000 gallons of whole milk and 5,000 gallons of cream.
The company’s industrial wastewater permit is tied the Met Council Waste Discharge Rule 406.04, which bars the discharge of “any wastewater containing fat, wax, tallow, grease, or oil of animal or vegetable origin in excess of 100 milligrams per liter, that has a potential to solidify, become viscous, or become water insoluble, and is likely to cause obstruction to the flow in public sewers or cause interference or pass-through.”
Gary Peterson and his friends are collecting donations to help people in their community.
ST. LOUIS PARK, Minn. — A St. Louis Park pumpkin display is raising money for their local food shelf.
Gary Peterson started carving and painting three pumpkins over a decade ago. It’s now grown to over 100.
“I’ve heard people say they’ve come from Hutchinson,” he said.
Peterson along with two of his neighbors have spent the last 14 years growing their display, turning it into a neighborhood event.
“It’s been incredible, I just can’t believe how much this has expanded,” he said. “We did it just because we like to and then people were asking to give us money to cover the cost.”
The trio refused to take people’s money, but then one of them had an idea.
“My neighbor, Steve Leensvaart, just mentioned how about we just do it for the STEP program and the STEP program is our local food shelf in St. Louis Park,” he said.
So, they started to collect donations to help families in need. They’ve raised hundreds of dollars and donated hundreds of pounds of food over the last few years, carving for a cause.
“It is more gratifying every year,” Peterson said.
He estimated they have over 100 unique pumpkins in their yard. They’ve created the displays and come up with new family-friendly concepts for people to enjoy. Peterson said about 30 of their neighbors carved their own pumpkins to be put on display, and it’s been a big hit.
“It’s great. In the last couple of years, it’s turned into more of a neighborhood event,” said Sarah Durch.
“We love this Halloween display, we come every year to see it. We love that the whole community gets involved to craft and carve the pumpkins,” said Jami Gordon-Smith.
“The shading and the details are unbelievable,” said Elizabeth Hanson.
Hanson hopes to take her 2-year-old son trick or treating for the first time but is worried the cold temperatures might keep them indoors.
“We’re going trick or treating hopefully,” she said. “He’s going to be a firefighter, but we’re probably going to have sweatshirts maybe like two pairs of sweatpants underneath. We’re going to be bundled up.”
Gordon-Smith said her family will be out Halloween night no matter the weather.
“Halloween only comes once a year, so you really have to take advantage and enjoy the evening no matter what the weather brings,” she said. “Guess it’s not totally unheard of in Minnesota to have a cold Halloween, but we are going to try and modify and do a lot of layers underneath our costumes and then we might add some hats and maybe some warmer socks.”
Durch also isn’t surprised they’re in for another chilly night.
“Well, what would Halloween be without Minnesota cold? I feel like every time you plan a costume you have to plan for how you can make this work if it’s snowing,” she said.
Peterson said they will have a bonfire and some hot chocolate and cider on Halloween to keep trick-or-treaters warm while they look at their pumpkins.
Click here to learn where you can see the pumpkins and how you can donate.
Jeremy Jourdain was 17 when he was last seen on Halloween 2016.
BEMIDJI, Minn. — The search for Jeremy Jourdain, who was last seen on Halloween in 2016, continues now eight years later.
Jourdain was last seen at a family member’s house in Bemidji, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior Indian Affairs. He left the residence near the 500 block of Wood Avenue after midnight and while people followed him, no one was able to find him.
Jourdain was 17 at the time.
Officials said he was wearing a blue and grey sweatshirt, and blue jeans when last seen. He is Native American and is described as 6 foot 5 and 175 pounds.
If you have any information on his whereabouts, you can contact the Bemidji Police Department at (218) 333-9111. Tips can also be sent to 1-833-560-2065, or you can email ojs_mmu@bia.gov.
The organizations say many Asian Americans are planning to vote despite lack of candidate outreach.
ST PAUL, Minn. — Most people have been contacted in some way shape or form by a campaign in the last few weeks. And if the polls are right and the race for president is a dead heat, every vote will matter.
That’s why this is a head scratcher:
According to a September 2024 voter survey by Asian American Pacific Islander Data, 27% of Asian-American voters said they hadn’t been contacted by either political party trying to get their vote. Last spring, earlier in the voting season, it was even more – 42%.
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are the fastest growing racial or ethnic group nationwide.
Their voter participation levels are growing too, with 60% of eligible Asian-American voters turning out in 2020. And AAPI Data reports as many as 90% of Asian Americans they surveyed said they plan to vote this cycle.
“Candidates are not reaching out to Asian Americans, which is a huge mistake,” said ThaoMee Xiong, executive and networking director of the Coalition of Asian American Leaders.
She says even though there are more than 200,000 eligible Asian voters in Minnesota, the Asian vote is under-appreciated.
“Neither the Democratic or Republican parties have been reaching out in huge numbers,” Xiong said. “They’re sending general mailers to everyone but … they need it in their native language.”
That’s why CAAL is partnering with two more organizations to keep voter turnout high and reach anyone candidates or advocates missed.
Xor Xiong is from Asian American Organizing Project, which focuses on engaging metro-area teens and young adults.
“Many of our communities are still facing barriers to go to vote,” he said. “There’s been more times than I like to admit in terms of when I was having a conversation over the phones of voters being surprised that they can take time off to go and vote, or they can bring the kids to the polling locations, or they can even bring someone to translate for them.”
“In Ramsey County, because of the large Hmong American population there, the polls in Ramsey County are federally required to provide interpreters and translated materials,” ThaoMee added.
Their nonpartisan campaign, Get Out the Vote for Asian Minnesotans, aims to get people registered and well-informed.
“Throughout Covid, there was a lot of anti-hate around the AAPI community and we are still feeling the impact of that to this day,” said Amanda Xiong, a community organizer with a group known as CAPI USA. “Even if folks are afraid to go to the polls, due to that, we try our best to then educate them around absentee ballots, voting early.”
“And so yes, there is a huge increase in terms of voter turnout, but then why is it still 70% feel as though they don’t belong?”
In 2021, the FBI reported a 168% increase in anti-Asian hate crimes.
In Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center, the groups knocked on at least 700 doors in one session alone while keeping safety top of mind.
“We make sure that there’s a car following all the door knockers,” ThaoMee said. “We put everyone on text chain … and we are putting a lot of precautionary measures in place for the day of voting.”
After the election, the CAAL plans to conduct surveys and send the results to county election officials. They’ve done this before and say it led to policy changes this year at the legislature including measures to ensure people have easier access to interpreters.
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