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Incinerator Update

By Elizabeth Leonardsmith  ·  September 20, 2022
20
September 2022

A new incinerator is being planned near the West Side. Our Health & Environmental Justice Action Circle has been following this closely, and we've organized several community events over the past year to inform our neighbors and take action together.

Currently, our next step is a community meeting with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency on October 4th, 2022, from 1:00pm-2:00pm, over Zoom. For more details or to sign up to participate in the meeting, email our Health & Environmental Justice Organizer Elizabeth Leonardsmith at [email protected]


The Star Tribune reports: “So far, neighborhood groups are not formally opposing the expansion but many are asking questions about fairness and environmental justice. ‘There is concern,’ said Monica Bravo, executive director of the West Side Community Organization, the neighborhood group located on the opposite bank of the river. ‘The West Side already disproportionately shoulders the environmental harms of the city. We have several toxic sites. Anything new that is coming is going to put people on high alert.’ West Side neighborhood leaders are partnering with the Sierra Club to prepare for an upcoming public comment period.” 
Learn more:
  • Visit the Met Council's website with information about the wastewater plant.
  • Check out a fact sheet from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
  • The Minnesota Pollution Control agency is reviewing the permit requests, environmental assessments, and preparing for public comment periods. Learn more about this process on their website.
Community reflections:
"This is our community, we deserve to pull up a seat to the table; its our future at stake." Bella Mendoza, West Side resident and WSCO Board Member

"It’s really important for the community to know what’s coming around in our neighborhood. The incinerator is possibly going to be built near Pig’s Eye Lake. So it could impact the West Side from an environmental justice and health perspective. I urge the community to come out, learn as much as you can about this, and make your voice heard.” – Kareem Smith, West Side resident

“My name is Krystle, I’m on the North Side of St. Paul, but I am here today to listen and to fight alongside and for anything that’s happening on the West Side because we are a community and the only way we’re going to get through any of these fights and win is helping each other out, staying connected. I’m so inspired by and happy to participate any way I can in the movement that’s happening on the West Side. As someone who’s on an incinerator fight over in Minneapolis, one thing I learned today was about the process of community engagement that seems to persist from the people trying to put in the toxic facility, and the way that that continues to fall short. We have to fight back and be properly engaged.”

 

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The West Side Community Organization powers the people of the West Side to work together to create a vibrant and thriving neighborhood for all. We envision a just, united, self-reliant and bold West Side where all our people a connected, safe, healthy and successful.
[email protected]  | 209 Page St. W. Saint Paul, MN 55107  |   (651) 293-1708
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West Side Community Orgaization
209 Page Street West
Saint Paul, MN 55107
(651) 293-1708
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