On day 12 of a hunger strike, environmental activists disrupted Tuesday’s Hennepin County Board meeting, sending commissioners into recess after finally getting a chance to speak face-to-face with the officials they say have ignored them for weeks.
Zero Burn Coalition members Natasha Villanueva, Joshua Lewis and Nazir Khan have not eaten since April 10. Seated in wheelchairs, they addressed the board one by one, demanding a vote to close the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center by December 2027. HERC first began generating electricity in 1989, making it a 36-year-old facility in a national industry in which most incinerators were built to last about 30 years. A total of 54 trash incinerators across the United States have closed since 2000, and no new incinerators have been built during that same period. The next day, the hunger strike ended.
HERC is one of the largest permitted sources of nitrogen oxides, hydrogen chloride emissions, dioxins, lead, sulfur dioxide and particulate matter in Hennepin County, and it is the county’s third-largest permitted source of carbon dioxide. Researchers have estimated that particulate-matter-related health impacts from HERC’s 2019 emissions resulted in one to 2.2 premature deaths and between $11 million and $24 million per year in health-related costs.
Nearly in tears, Villanueva adjusted her microphone and directed her comments toward County Board Chair Irene Fernando, describing how the county had ignored her outreach.
“This is the first time during that period that any of you have sat down to face those of us on strike, asking you merely to take a vote on your own resolution to close the single largest source of pollution in the county,” said Villanueva. “Meanwhile, we’ve met with representatives from all local government, faith leaders, students, journalists and constituents all calling in one voice to shut down HERC.”
When asked for comment, Chair Fernando stressed that closing the HERC early would do more damage than good. “Closing the HERC when there is not an operational plan established for the waste would likely result in service disruptions or dramatic cost increases for residents and businesses,” said Fernando. “Further, it would result in hundreds of thousands of tons of waste being trucked to suburban and regional landfills, raising costs for residents, increasing truck traffic through neighborhoods, worsening methane emissions, and burdening other environmental justice communities elsewhere in the region.”
Commissioner Kevin Anderson briefly spoke with Khan in a video uploaded to Zero Burn’s Instagram. Anderson accused the hunger strikers of working on behalf of landfill companies.
“The people you’ve talked to are actually connected to landfill companies,” said Anderson.
Khan said that the county has not consulted with independent scientists regarding HERC’s effects on health.
“Where’s your independent scientist,” Khan asked.
That comment upset Villanueva.
“Yet commissioners in front of me have mischaracterized us as aggressive and being in the pocket of landfill companies for raising awareness around this issue and for asking for accountability from our own elected officials who we chose to represent us,” said Villanueva.
Villanueva recounted a Monday visit to Chair Fernando’s office. “We were told you were not present,” said Villanueva. “Moments later, we observed a Hennepin County employee arrive stating they had a meeting with the board chair, who was admitted to entry despite the fact that I have emailed you, called your aide and watched them run back and forth through the hallways of the Government Center, avoiding us, ignoring us, and denying our request to meet.”
Lewis, who said the anniversary of his grandmother’s death from breast cancer falls on the following day, called for reparations alongside closure.
“I think it’s well timed that not only you set a date and shut it down,” said Lewis. “I think we need to look at paying reparations to the families who have suffered from this, who have lost years of their life from environmental toxins and the accumulation of bio stressors.”
Lewis addressed the absence of District 4 Commissioner Angela Conley. “I have so many friends who are friends with Commissioner Conley, I cannot understand why, when we are taking the steps to raise the seriousness of this harm in our community, that they cannot even set a meeting with us.”
Khan said county officials are unrealistic about their closure conditions.
“The 2028 to 2040 range is a PR stunt,” said Khan. “It does not require HERC closure. Even by 2040 it sets impossible conditions for closure, requiring Minnesota to reach 100% renewable energy, the county to reach 85% recycling, which no municipality in the world has yet reached, and no increase in landfilling.”
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Assistant Commissioner Kirk Koudelka told MSR that “in general, there are more negatives on the landfilling side.” “No incinerator in the country has closed without a temporary increase in landfilling,” Koudelka said in 2023.
Khan pushed back on that condition, echoing Koudelka’s own words. “No incinerator in the country has closed without a temporary increase in landfilling,” said Khan.
Khan also read from a national letter of support gathered in just three days. “Across the United States, the fight against incineration has become one of the defining environmental justice battles of our time,” he read. “You cannot claim climate or racial justice leadership while continuing to operate the county’s largest polluter.”
His argument has national precedent. Community campaigns helped close incinerators in Detroit in 2019 and in Southern California in 2018. Large trash incinerators in the United States are disproportionately located in communities of color.
Arwa Alakech, an environmental science policy and management student at the University of Minnesota, was leaving the Government Service Center when she realized she had left her headphones in the gallery. She returned to the 24th floor and received a trespass citation in a room filled with anger.
“During this hunger strike, not one of you took the time to meet with us, despite daily opportunities to,” said Alakech. “Commissioner Conley, who isn’t here today, how can you claim to support public health when your constituents suffer dire health consequences from a potential source of pollution?”
A dozen protesters temporarily blocked traffic by the underpass outside the Government Service Center.
Hennepin County is the only governing body with the authority to shut HERC down. Chair Fernando said the city should pull its own weight. “City administration has not taken any concrete operational steps to advance that goal outside of what has been required by state law or county action,” said Fernando.