Star Tribune
Shakopee metal recycler fined $140,000 for mishandling ozone-depleting and planet-warming chemicals
A metal recycler in Shakopee was fined $140,000 by the Environmental Protection Agency for mishandling climate-warming refrigerants.
Dem-Con Metal Recycling accepts scrap metals and old appliances, and then sends them to other companies to be shredded, company President Bill Keegan said this week. Old refrigerators and air conditioners can still contain chemicals that are illegal to release into the environment.
The EPA said the problems at Dem-Con “have caused or can cause” the release of the chemicals.
But Keegan said no chemicals were ever released from the materials Dem-Con has recycled and that the company only “needed to develop the proper procedures and practices” to handle refrigerants.
The EPA said the company violated the part of the Clean Air Act that governs atmospheric pollution, instead of emissions near the ground that can cause local problems. As a result, it incurred a higher fine.
“We’re a small company. It’s a huge fine,” Keegan said.
Dem-Con runs another scrap metal recycling facility in Blaine and six other Twin Cities operations, including landfills, traditional consumer recycling and dumpster rentals.
The EPA under the Biden administration has focused on reducing rogue refrigerants because the chemicals are potent greenhouse gases that contribute to the warming of the planet.
In a 2019 visit, federal inspectors noted that Dem-Con employees did not recover refrigerant from scrapped appliances, according to a Finding of Violation provided by EPA. Employees at the location were also unable to turn on equipment designed to capture the refrigerants.
Keegan said the company “has been compliant ever since” EPA’s visit and fully cooperated with its investigation.
Window air conditioners, refrigerators and car air conditioning systems contain chemicals that help cool spaces. Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) — the two refrigerants mentioned in EPA’s findings — are potent greenhouse gases.
CFCs, in particular, have also contributed to the thinning of the Earth’s ozone layer. Under the 1989 Montreal Protocol, the United States and many other countries agreed to stop using them.
HFCs were supposed to be a replacement, but proved to be accelerants of climate change when they are released into the atmosphere. According to EPA, this category of chemicals’ potential to warm the planet can be “hundreds to thousands of times greater” than the most common greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide. Congress has since ordered the EPA to cut down on production and consumption of HFC by 85% by 2036.
Ensuring the chemicals are captured from waste and recycling has proved a challenge, with just 17% of HFCs in old air conditioners and refrigerators being recaptured, the Star Tribune reported in February.
The metal recycling industry has also come under scrutiny by Minnesota’s environmental regulators in the past year for potential air pollution problems. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency said in February that it was investigating air pollution at seven sites around the state where metal is actually shredded.
In an email, agency spokeswoman Andrea Cournoyer said there was no update on the investigation.
Two men are dead and one woman was injured in a shooting at a homeless encampment in south Minneapolis on Sunday afternoon, police said. It was the second shooting at a Minneapolis encampment this weekend.
At about 2:20 p.m. Sunday, police responded to a reported shooting in the 4400 block of Snelling Avenue near the railroad tracks at the small encampment between Snelling and Hiawatha avenues. At the scene, officers found two men with fatal gunshot wounds, said Sgt. Garrett Parten Minneapolis Police spokesman. Responders rendered aid, but both men died at the scene.
A woman was found at the scene with life-threatening injuries and was taken to a local hospital where she was being treated Sunday night, he said. Police have yet to say whether the three were living at the encampment.
Officers detained three people, who Parten said have since been released after police found they were not believed to be involved in the shooting. No suspects had been identified as of 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
The shooting is the second at a southside homeless encampment this weekend. One man died and two were critically injured early Saturday at an encampment shooting near E. 21st Street and 15th Avenue S. On Sunday, the man was identified as Deven Leonard Caston, 31, according to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office.
“We don’t know if there’s a connection between this homeless encampment shooting and the one that occurred yesterday,” Parten said on Sunday. “That is a consideration of the investigation. We can’t rule it out.”
Ward 12 Council Member Aurin Chowdhury, who represents the area and lives nearby, was at the site of the shooting Sunday afternoon. She said officials need information about what happened to better understand how to address situations like this long-term.
“This is an absolute tragedy, and this type of violence should never occur within our city,” she said. “It really makes me think about how we need to look at this more systemically and not just take a whack-a-mole approach and expect the problem to go away.
During Sunday’s Twitch stream, Walz and Ocasio-Cortez played Madden while discussing making homebuying more accessible, building affordable housing, eliminating student loan debt and raising the federal minimum wage.
After the match, Walz showed off his Sega skills in a round of “Crazy Taxi,” the Y2K-era racing game where gamers play as a taxi driver picking up passengers and taking them to their destination for cash.
Walz called himself a “first-generation gamer” and recalled playing “Crazy Taxi” when he bought a Sega Dreamcast. He also mentioned the Minnesota Star Tribune’s coverage of how his old game console was sold and ended up with a Plymouth resident, who still has it.
Afterward, Walz and Ocasio-Cortez watched a short clip of Trump denying on Rogan’s podcast that he lost the 2020 presidential election. Democrat Joe Biden won that year.
Ocasio-Cortez during the livestream also showed viewers her farm on the cozy, indie game Stardew Valley. Walz said the game reminded him of Minnesota: “You’ve got mining,” he said. “You’ve got agriculture. You’ve got snow.”
Before Walz headed out to a rally in Nevada, he pleaded with viewers to vote. More than 12,000 viewers tuned into the livestream on Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitch channel. More watched from Harris’ channel.
”Hey guys, they’re now scrambling and trying to call us Nazis and fascists,” said Alina Habba, one of Trump’s attorneys, who draped a sparkly ”MAGA” jacket over the lectern as she spoke. ”And you know what they’re claiming, guys? It’s very scary. They’re claiming we’re going to go after them and try and put them in jail. Well, ain’t that rich?”
Declared Hogan in his characteristic raspy growl: ”I don’t see no stinkin’ Nazis in here.”
Trump has denounced the four criminal indictments brought against him as politically motivated. He has ramped up his denunciations in recent weeks of ”enemies from within,” naming domestic political rivals, and suggested he would use the military to go after them. Harris, in turn, has called Trump a ”fascist.”
The arena was full hours before Trump was scheduled to speak. Outside the arena, the sidewalks were overflowing with Trump supporters in red ”Make America Great Again” hats. There was a heavy security presence. Streets were blocked off and access to Penn Station was restricted.
In the crowd was Philip D’Agostino, a longtime Trump backer from Queens, the borough where Trump grew up. The 64-year-old said it was appropriate for Trump to be speaking at a place bills itself as ”the world’s most famous arena.”
”It just goes to show ya that he has a bigger following of any man that has ever lived,” D’Agostino said.
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