Minnesota county forced to close incinerator or risk $26M AD facility

A provision in a $1.5 billion infrastructure borrowing bill signed into law in Minnesota this spring could force a waste incinerator in Hennepin County to shut down, reports the Star Tribune.

The state legislature allocated $26 million to the county for the construction of an anaerobic digester (AD) in Brooklyn Park, but it comes with a condition: “This appropriation is not available until Hennepin County submits a plan for the cessation of operations at the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center,” or HERC, the bill states.

“We can't really direct what the county needs to do, but if they're asking for a big investment from the state regarding the anaerobic digester, we have an opportunity to ... also address some of the concerns our neighbors had,” Rep. Fue Lee, who chairs the House’s Capital Investment Committee, tells the Star Tribune.

The bill has no specific date or timeline to close the site, which handles 45 percent of Hennepin County’s trash, or 365,000 tons a year.

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Lee says the timeline will be up to county officials and their constituents, adding that an effective plan will also require discussions with the cities that send trash there to be burned. Most of the refuse incinerated at the HERC comes from Minneapolis.

Hennepin County recently released a zero-waste plan to divert 80 percent of its waste stream from landfill through reuse, recycling or composting. Handling food waste, including with the AD facility, is a key part of the plan, with a quarter of the trash that is burned or sent to a landfill in the county being organic matter.

In addition, the county is facing a state deadline to divert 75 percent of its waste stream away from landfill by 2030. It is currently diverting about 39 percent.

As reported by the Star Tribune, the HERC used to be considered a renewable energy source under state law, but that changed earlier this year when lawmakers passed a carbon-free energy standard. By 2040, electricity across Minnesota must be produced without greenhouse gas emissions.

The HERC produces about 200,000 megawatt hours of power annually from the trash it burns, which is purchased by Xcel Energy. According to usage estimates from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, that's enough to run 18,811 average American homes for a year.