Activists say Hennepin County tracked HERC opponents

Activists working to close the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center, the county-owned trash burner next to North Minneapolis, said Thursday that county records show Hennepin County staff tracked their organizing for years and shared details with the company that runs the facility. At a press conference outside Heritage Park, one leader named in the records demanded that two county staff members resign.

The Minnesota Environmental Justice Table and the Zero Burn Coalition released a report built on county emails and notes they obtained through Minnesota Government Data Practices Act requests. The report alleges that, beginning in 2023, county staff attended or listened in on coalition events and meetings, wrote up what they saw and sent those notes up the county’s chain of command and, in some cases, to the private operator of the burner, GRE HERC Services.

The Zero Burn Coalition has called on the county to close HERC no later than Jan. 1, 2028.

The coalition said Hennepin County and GRE have not responded directly to the report. KSTP reported that the county has previously stated it operates well below permitted emission limits. 

In statements to MSR last week about the closure campaign, before the report was released, Hennepin County Chief Public Relations Officer Carolyn Marinan said the County Board reaffirmed its position on HERC earlier this year and that the county is committed to zero waste “to accelerate the closure and repurposing of HERC.” Board Chair Irene Fernando said she opposes closing HERC until there is an operational plan for the roughly 1,000 tons of trash that arrive each day, and that she authored the board’s 2023 resolution to plan for its closure.

Advocates say the permit is the central issue. HERC’s operating permit has not been substantively updated since 1998, MSR has reported, and the county says the facility’s emissions from 2016 to 2025 averaged 80% below permitted levels.

The report cites county page numbers for each example. It says Environmental Engagement Coordinator Joe Vital emailed notes on a February 2023 coalition campaign launch to Environment and Energy staff, including Assistant Director David McNary. It says Vital sat in on a June 13, 2023, coalition Zoom call after a manager, Angie Timmons, asked him to attend, then sent notes that listed attendees and attributed plans and statements to named members.

According to the report, those notes reached Assistant County Administrator Lisa Cerney within hours. In August 2023, the report says, McNary forwarded a coalition rally alert to Tim Steinbeck, president of GRE HERC Services, who replied by asking whether there was “any opportunity to share the ‘facts.'”

The report also says that in March 2024 McNary sent private emails from environmental justice advocates about a state bill that would let cities phase out polluting facilities to industry representatives, including the operator’s president, and asked who was opposing it. McNary is treasurer-secretary of the Minnesota Resource Recovery Association, an incinerator industry group, along with Steinbeck, the report says. The bill did not pass.

The coalition said the county withheld some pages marked “Attorney File” and that it has asked for the rest.

Audua Pugh, executive director of the Jordan Area Community Council, said she was named in notes Vital prepared. “The county would say that this is community engagement, but the county wasn’t just listening to our concerns, they were listening in and reporting back to the higher-ups,” Pugh said.

Pugh pushed back on notes that suggested others in the coalition control her. “I make my own decisions,” she said. “I choose this advocacy on my own for my people and my community.”

She called for Timmons and McNary to resign, saying their work undermined the County Board’s own 2023 resolution calling for HERC’s closure. “As far as I’m concerned, these two should resign today, not tomorrow,” Pugh said. She also criticized Fernando, who represents the district, saying it appears the chair has failed to address staff actions that cut against the board’s commitments.

Kent Mori of the Climate Justice Committee addressed a line in the notes quoting him as saying “further escalation is needed.” He said he does not remember the meeting but that it sounds like something he would say. “Escalation in mobilizing, escalation in organizing, escalation in fighting government repression,” Mori said.

Patty O’Keefe of the Zero Burn Coalition said the county has treated residents as adversaries. “Hennepin County says it’s our partner, but partners don’t take notes on us and hand our organizing over to the company that burns the trash that we breathe,” she said. She called on the county to be transparent about how the information was collected and shared and to support a clear closure date.

Adina Black, associate director of the Minnesota Environmental Justice Table, said that as of September 2026 there is active litigation over living conditions at Heritage Park, and that the two fights are connected. “Residents should not have to fight their own government institutions for safe housing and clean air,” she said.

Kenya McKnight-Ahad, founder of Black Women’s Wealth Alliance, CEO of ZaRah Integrated Root Center and a member of the One Heritage Park Coalition, said Heritage Park residents have lived with mold and health problems including asthma and respiratory illness, and that some are being evicted and retaliated against. She said the city, the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority and the state have stepped up, but the county has not, and that Fernando told residents Heritage Park was not the county’s business. “The county needs to step up,” McKnight-Ahad said.

The report and the county pages it cites are available at zeroburncoalition.org.

Jasmine McBride welcomes reader responses at jmcbride@spokesman-recorder.com.