Gopher Resource recycles lead-acid batteries at its Eagan facility. The facility operates under air, industrial stormwater, and hazardous waste permits from the MPCA.
From January through March 2025, MPCA air monitoring data showed elevated lead levels that exceeded national ambient air quality standards near the facility. An MPCA analysis indicates most of the lead was deposited within 500 feet of the fenceline of the Gopher Resource property. An area within about three-quarters of a mile of the facility may have been exposed to a smaller amount of lead from the facility.
MPCA air monitoring data indicates that lead levels in the month of April returned to acceptable levels according to the federal standards that protect human health and the environment. An MPCA inspection of Gopher Resource this spring confirms that the source of the elevated lead levels has been addressed.
No amount of lead in the body is safe. Even small amounts can be harmful, especially for children. While potential lead emissions from this facility may affect the health of nearby residents, other common sources of lead include lead-based paint used in buildings, soil contaminated with lead from exterior paint on buildings, or the past use of leaded gasoline.
Data from the area around Gopher Resource have not shown higher-than-normal levels of lead in children.
Our role
The MPCA is responsible for issuing and enforcing permits that limit air emissions and water discharge from Gopher Resource’s operations to protect the environment and health of Minnesotans. Those permits reflect current state laws and regulations. The MPCA inspects the facility on a regular basis.
The MPCA issued the facility’s current air permit in December 2022. The MPCA will require Gopher Resource to apply for an updated air permit.
FAQs about Gopher Resource and lead emissions
Questions from Eagan residents about lead emissions near Gopher Resource and responses from the MPCA.
Community meetings
The MPCA is committed to working with our partners at Dakota County and the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) to inform the Eagan community about lead emissions. In early July, the MPCA notified area residents of the elevated lead levels. We then held two community meetings, one virtual (July 21) and one in person (July 22). MPCA participated in a community meeting organized by Eagan residents on August 13.
- Aug. 13, 2025
Air monitoring
The MPCA has operated a regulatory air monitor near Gopher Resource since 2006 to measure lead, total suspended particles, and other metals concentrations. The MPCA takes samples from the air monitor every three days to measure pollutants to help the MPCA improve and protect outdoor air. With this data, the agency can track pollution trends over time to show whether outdoor air meets air quality standards and health benchmarks. Air monitors have strict requirements and are tested often to ensure high quality data.
The federal standard for lead is 0.15 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m3), averaged over three months of monitoring data. Data below show the three-month rolling average of monitored lead concentration values from samples collected by the Gopher Resource monitor.
- December 2024 – 0.05 µg/m3
- January 2025 – 0.19 µg/m3
- February 2025 – 0.21 µg/m3
- March 2025 – 0.23 µg/m3
- April 2025 – 0.09 µg/m3
- May 2025 – 0.06 µg/m3
- June 2025 – 0.04 µg/m3
- July 2025 – 0.03 µg/m3
- August 2025 – 0.02 µg/m3
Location
Gopher Resource is located at 685 Yankee Doodle Road in Eagan. It is in an area mostly zoned for industrial with some residential areas and parks nearby. Residents fish several lakes near this facility for food consumption and recreation. According to the MPCA's environmental justice mapping tool, 33% of the people near the facility are people of color.
Timeline
- 2006 — MPCA air monitoring began.
- 2007-2009 — MPCA air monitoring showed Gopher Resource was not meeting federal air quality standards for lead, leading the MPCA to designate the area where Gopher Resource is located a lead nonattainment area.
- 2009 — Gopher Resource implemented additional lead controls to come into compliance with lead standards.
- Aug. 24, 2015 – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved the MPCA's determination that the area where Gopher Resource is located meets the federal lead air quality standards based on three years of quality-assured data.
- January-March 2025 — MPCA air monitor measured elevated levels of lead near Gopher Resource.
- May 29, 2025 — MPCA issued a notice of violation for exceeding lead air quality standards.
More information
Blood lead testing. MDH’s routine Minnesota Childhood Blood Lead Screening Guidelines recommend all children receive a blood lead test around 12 and 24 months of age. Older children and adults should be tested if there are other risks. Residents who are concerned about their lead exposure should discuss blood lead testing with their health care provider.
For those who do not have insurance or a health care provider, find blood lead testing options on the MDH website.
Soil lead testing. MDH offered lead testing of soil samples that residents dropped off at the July 22 public meeting and at the Dakota County Wescott Library from July 14 to Aug. 1.
Nonattainment
Q: The MPCA has repeatedly referenced “nonattainment” as it relates to Gopher. What does that mean?
A: Nonattainment is a word that comes directly from the Clean Air Act that regards a process to improve air quality in a place so that it's better than EPA's health-based standard.
The nonattainment process creates requirements for the state and EPA to take many steps to improve the air quality in a place that is classified as nonattainment. Monitoring air quality is a core requirement. Other requirements are requiring air pollution reductions at facilities and identifying who else is releasing air pollution that will create improvements to air quality and seeking ways to reduce their air pollution. All these requirements are included in a large plan that the state submits to EPA for approval. The process can take many years, even when the air quality has become better than EPA's standard, due to the requirements of the Clean Air Act.
For the area in Eagan, the nonattainment happened when EPA lowered its standard for lead in 2008. Since 2012, the levels of airborne lead in Eagan have been below EPA's standard. However, because all the steps of the process in Clean Air Act have not been completed, the area continued to be called nonattainment. The air pollution event in 2025 caused a resetting of the clock and the state will now revise our plan that we must give to EPA. The levels of airborne lead in Eagan since April 2025 continue to be below EPA's standard.
Q: How and why did the Gopher facility enter nonattainment?
A: In 2008, the EPA set the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for lead at a level 10 times stricter (from 1.5 micrograms per cubic meter to 0.15 micrograms per cubic meter) to promote health benefits and protect children and other vulnerable populations from lead exposure.
When the EPA reviewed monitoring data across the country and compared it to the new standard, the EPA found the area around Gopher Resource did not meet the new standard at that time.
Being designated nonattainment does not mean that the area is not complying with the standard the whole time it is designated nonattainment.
The monitor near Gopher Resource was meeting the federal standard for lead between 2012 and 2025. For the first time since 2012, the monitor exceeded the standard in January, February, and March of 2025. Since April 2025 the monitor has once again been meeting the standard.
It is important to note that EPA generally only designates areas as nonattainment as part of an organized process immediately after it changes the federal standard for a pollutant. Those areas remain designated as nonattainment until they have at least three years of monitoring without exceeding the standard and the MPCA completes specific analysis, planning, and paperwork steps that are then reviewed and approved by EPA.
An area does not automatically switch to attainment status once it meets the standard.
Q: What was the MPCA’s response to the EPA’s designation of the area as being in nonattainment?
A: In response to the area being in nonattainment, the MPCA required Gopher Resource to take steps to reduce its lead emissions. The monitoring data demonstrated that the area around the facility was meeting the NAAQS standard by 2012. With the exception of isolated incidences in early 2025, the area around Gopher Resource has consistently remained below the NAAQS.
Q: Why hasn’t the area been moved out of the nonattainment status?
A: While it may seem straightforward to switch the area around Gopher Resource to attainment status once it meets the standard, the process is more complex.
The area must first meet the standard for three years. Then the MPCA must prepare a detailed state implementation plan (SIP) to document how the area will continue to meet the standard. This plan must be submitted as a formal request to the EPA for redesignation from nonattainment to attainment.
The MPCA submitted such a request in 2022. In 2023, monitoring near the facility showed lead levels that did not exceed the standard, but were slightly elevated. Because the monitored levels were close to the standard, the EPA required the MPCA to submit additional information about what the MPCA required the facility to do to ensure the area would not exceed the standards. Because monitoring data in 2025 showed an exceedance of the standard, the agency will need to restart this process.
Q: Why does the SIP matter to residents?
A: The SIP directly impacts residents by laying out the rules that facilities in nonattainment areas like Gopher Resource must follow to control emissions. The SIP requires MPCA air monitoring in the area. The SIP also establishes contingency plans should lead levels rise again.
Once approved, the SIP becomes a legally binding document, giving the MPCA and the EPA the authority to hold Gopher Resource accountable.
It is important to add that the SIP process requires a public comment period before it is approved.
Eagan residents and anyone who is interested will have the opportunity to review the plan, raise questions, and suggest improvements before the plan is finalized.
Q: What is the status of the SIP?
A: The MPCA is now preparing a new SIP for the area around Gopher Resource.
The first formal step in that process will be for the MPCA to formally withdraw the SIP we submitted to EPA in 2022. All the requirements of the 2022 plan will remain in effect until a new plan is approved by EPA.
The new SIP will respond to the 2025 exceedance and explain how the facility meets its obligation to stay within the federal lead standard.
The MPCA will continue monitoring the air quality around Gopher Resource and these air monitors will need to show three consecutive years of data below the standard before a nonattainment area is eligible to be designated as in attainment. That three-year period will begin in 2026, which means the earliest the process could begin to reclassify the area around Gopher Resource as being in attainment is 2029.
