Cumulative impacts rulemaking

Revisor ID: R-04805

The MPCA has begun work to implement a groundbreaking new law to remedy Minnesotans’ disproportionate exposure to pollutants. The law defines environmental justice areas and requires the MPCA to conduct a rulemaking process to address the cumulative impacts of pollution during permitting processes.

For many neighborhoods and communities in Minnesota, decades-old permitting and zoning decisions by local, state, and federal governments have resulted in heavily polluting industrial and manufacturing facilities located near homes, schools, and parks.

As part of the law, the Legislature requires the MPCA to develop criteria for requiring a cumulative impact analysis and its content, define a substantial adverse environmental and health impact, establish the structure of a community benefits agreement and process, and ensure permit applicants have access to social and environmental factors, including elevated rates of disease, poor access to health insurance and medical care, and food insecurity.

These criteria, standards, agreements, and processes will be developed through the state’s thorough and lengthy rulemaking process.

Procedural rulemaking documents

April 2025

• Second request for comments, cumulative impacts rulemaking (aq-rule2-25a1)

July 2023

• Request for comments (aq-rule2-25a)
• Comments received in response to Request for Comments (aq-rule2-25b)

15736: Cumulative impacts SmartComment documents accordions

Review working session documents

Review the documents from the five cumulative impacts working sessions that took place from July to November 2024.

The linked documents are draft materials from the 2024 development phase of this rulemaking project, and public comments submitted in response to those drafts. They are provided for background information only and do not represent any final MPCA proposals or decisions.

Analysis indicators and datasets

Cumulative impacts analysis indicators and datasets (July 12 – Aug. 15)

• Cumulative impacts data inclusion criteria
• Data to use in a cumulative impacts analysis
• Factsheets
• Presentation
• Comments

Community benefit agreements

Cumulative impacts community benefit agreements (Aug. 15 – Sept. 19)

• Community benefits agreement - Benefits
• Community benefits agreement - Elements
• Community benefits agreement - Engagement
• Presentation
• Comments

Analysis requirements

Cumulative impacts analysis requirements (Sept. 20 – Oct. 23)

• Petition process
• Mandatory analysis
• Discretionary analysis
• Presentation
• Comments

Community engagement and community benefit agreements

Cumulative impacts community engagement and community benefit agreements (Oct. 25 – Nov. 15)

• Community benefit categories
• Community benefit agreement meeting requirements
• Communities' role in in community benefit agreements
• Presentation
• Comments

Analysis indicator prioritization

Cumulative impacts analysis indicator prioritization (Nov. 15 – Dec. 13)

• Presentation
• Handouts
• Comments

Analysis contents and substantial adverse impacts

Cumulative impacts analysis contents and substantial adverse impacts (May 14 – June 13)

Review resources and provide comments on draft concepts; closes 4 p.m. on June 13.

15376: GovDelivery: rulemaking cumulative impacts MNPCA_523

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Rulemaking schedule

Newly defined environmental justice areas

For the first time, the Legislature defined an environmental justice area in Minnesota law when it passed the 2023 cumulative impacts law. These areas are the focal points for developing Minnesota’s cumulative impact analysis criteria and processes for some air permit decisions. An environmental justice area is defined in statute as one or more census tracts — small, permanent subdivisions of a county or city — meeting any of the following criteria:

• 40% or more of the population is nonwhite.
• 35% or more of the households have an income at or below 200% of poverty ($60,000 for a family of four).
• 40% or more of the population over the age of five has limited English proficiency.
• Located within Indian Country.

The MPCA must use these criteria for the cumulative impact rulemaking, which only apply to the Twin Cities seven-county metro area and the cities of Duluth and Rochester. The MPCA has developed maps for the Twin Cities metro, Duluth and Rochester that show environmental justice areas and one-mile buffer zones.

• Twin Cities metro environmental justice areas map (aq-rule2-25c)

  (7/10/2024)
• Duluth MN environmental justice areas map (aq-rule2-25d)

  (7/10/2024)
• Rochester MN environmental justice areas map (aq-rule2-25e)

  (7/10/2024)

An updated statewide list of facilities that may be impacted by this rulemaking has been developed, although the criteria and process to determine if a facility needs additional environmental analysis have not been created.

• Facilities that may be affected by Minnesota's new cumulative impacts law (aq-rule2-25f)

  (10/11/2024)

The statewide map of environmental justice areas was updated in September 2024.