Contact: Ralph Pribble, 651-757-2657
St. Paul, Minn. – The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency announced that a group of businesses comprising Ever-Green Energy LLC; St. Paul Cogeneration LLC; District Energy St. Paul Inc.; and Environmental Wood Supply LLC, has paid a $55,000 civil penalty to resolve alleged violations of the air quality permit for the St. Paul District Heating operation.
Ever-Green operates the district heating facility at 76 Kellogg Blvd. and a combined heat and power facility at 125 Shepard Road. District Energy St. Paul owns the district heating facility, and St. Paul Cogeneration owns the Shepard Road facility. The facilities supply heat and electricity to business customers in the St. Paul core area. Environmental Wood Supply is a wood-recycling center at 2165 Pigs Eye Lake Road that supports St. Paul Cogeneration.
The agreement covers violations of the air-quality permit from 2008 to 2010. Violations included exceeding permitted limits for carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides from the wood-fired boiler at St. Paul Cogeneration, not performing continuing emissions monitoring according to the terms of the permit, and not calibrating monitoring equipment as required. In addition, no amendment to the air emissions permit was obtained prior to adding Environmental Wood Supply to the operation of the permitted facility.
To resolve the violations, the companies have paid a civil penalty of $55,000. In addition, the companies agreed to a schedule of specific corrective actions to achieve compliance, including submitting plans on how they will ensure compliance with the emission limits in their air-quality permit and prevent reoccurrence of the violations in the future. The majority of the items in the compliance schedule have been completed; failure to comply with the complete schedule in the agreement will result in further specified penalties.
When calculating penalties, the MPCA takes into account how seriously the violations affected the environment, whether they were first-time or repeat violations, and how promptly they were reported to appropriate authorities. Penalties also attempt to recover the calculated economic benefit gained by failure to comply with environmental laws in a timely manner. A comprehensive list of enforcement actions by the MPCA is available on the agency’s website.
