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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.”
According to the CDC, 40% of students experience sadness and hopelessness on a regular basis.
ST PAUL, Minn. — At this year’s Minnesota Educators’ Academy (MEA), the main focus was how to better students’ mental health. MEA is the largest development opportunity for educators in Minnesota, and gives teachers the opportunity to learn ways to improve in the classroom and handle the forever-changing needs of students.
“We need more counselors, we need more social workers, school psychologists, school nurses, people who really know their stuff,” said Education Minnesota President Denise Specht. “There are some schools that only have a counselor one day a week. We simply need more teams to address the needs.”
Specht also said having smaller class sizes would help teachers build stronger relationships with their students, potentially bettering their mental health.
According to the CDC, 40% of students experience sadness and hopelessness on a regular basis. Student teacher Caitlin Efta feels social media is playing a large part.
“There’s a lot of bullying and other things that happen online, and a lot of kids are just falling victim to that,” Efta said.
Minnesota’s 2024 teacher of the year Tracy Byrd says to improve students mental health, we need to take the stress off of them.
“Just by letting them know, relax, you are enough, you are okay,” Byrd said. “Don’t put too much pressure on this one assignment or this one test or this one book.”
Women’s Advocates opened in 1974 in St. Paul and is renovating 19 new apartment units to increase shelter space.
ST PAUL, Minn. — Women’s Advocates is considered the first shelter in the nation for survivors of domestic assault. It opened in St. Paul in 1974 and on Thursday, it’s hosting its 50th anniversary gala at the Landmark Center.
The tickets are sold out.
The organization is in the midst of a campaign to raise $14.25 million to acquire and renovate two new facilities in St. Paul to better serve the public. It includes 19 new individual apartment-style units totaling 58 beds for adults and children.
The space would also allow survivors to live with their pets 24/7, increase mental health support, and be ADA-compliant for all genders, sexualities, and abilities.
“It’s hard because we want to work ourselves out of a job, we want to be in a scenario where there’s not violence present in our community, but until we get there, we’re here as a support system for folks needing that,” said Executive Director Holly Henning.
Women’s Advocates currently serves about 50 adults and children, sometimes for three months at a time. It offers services ranging from mental and chemical health to legal advice and financial support.
The organization originally started as a hotline to guide people going through divorce.
“What they were finding when those calls were coming in was much different than, I just need a divorce,” said Henning. “It was folks who were in immediate danger and really needed help beyond that.”
Nowadays, the organization often has to turn people away. Other organizations actively work to find empty beds across the city for survivors in need. But Henning says, that sometimes, the violence people are experiencing is also more severe.
Violence Free Minnesota says that the 40 people killed in domestic violence situations last year is the most in more than three decades of record-keeping.
“It’s about compassion and empathy and I think it’s OK to have emotion, it’s OK to see people human to human and they’re continuously reminding you of why the work is so important,” said Henning.
Henning is also hoping to raise $125,000 during October, which is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. If you’d like to donate, you can find more information about the capital campaign here.
There’s also more information about services and ways to connect with someone through the Women’s Advocates 24/7 crisis resource hotline here.
The “Westopolis” name is meant to highlight the cities’ vibrancy and proximity to Minneapolis.
The marketing and tourism organization formerly known as Discover St. Louis Park has rebranded this fall with a bold, new name:
The organization, which launched in 2011 and grew to also incorporate Golden Valley in 2017, began using the “Westopolis” name this month. According to Westopolis President and CEO Becky Bakken, the name is designed to highlight the vibrancy and urban character of St. Louis Park and Golden Valley, which both border Minneapolis and have a combined population of nearly 75,000.
“A lot is behind the name,” Bakken said. “Westopolis just kept speaking to us. In this process, we really leaned into the fact that we are the closest neighbor to downtown Minneapolis. To be honest, we are closer to downtown than parts of Minneapolis are. And it really felt like our primary differentiator.”
Bakken said the change to “Westopolis” is also meant to help the organization communicate better with event planners and out-of-town vendors, who sometimes confuse “St. Louis Park” with St. Louis, MO. Between St. Louis Park and Golden Valley, the cities boast nine hotels with nearly 1,500 combined rooms, and the tourism organization now known as Westopolis plays a key role in drawing visitors and filling those rooms.
“When people are looking for a place to go, that aren’t from this area, they know the big city. They know Minneapolis. We wanted to make sure they knew how close we were to that, and once they’re here they discover all the other things,” Bakken said. “The name is unique, it’s different. It’s not on a map, we understand that. We think the name is edgy, and when we’re working with planners, they’re gonna lean in and say, ‘tell me more about this place.'”
This week, Westopolis is enjoying a nice boost from the Twin Cities Film Fest, a staple of St. Louis Park that draws talent and crew members to the city’s West End from across the country. It’s the kind of annual event that Westopolis would love to see more of in the coming years.
“The West End was sort of the rationale for why Discover St. Louis Park — and now Westopolis — exists. It’s this great area that is a real driver for visitors,” Bakken said. “But both communities have their thing. Golden Valley has a big chunk of Theodore Wirth that we love to claim, and Brookview that has a lot of outdoor activities, so we really like to lean into this urban oasis.”
To unveil the new brand, Westopolis rolled out a website and held a launch party this fall.
“Change is change, and that’s always interesting,” Bakken said, “but mostly people are really excited about the new name and we’re ready to market the new name.”
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