Sahan Journal10%
Neighbors of troubled St. Paul foundry pack courtroom as judge weighs permit revocation 15%
By Andrew Hazzard6%
7/21/2026, 8:57:40 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 19 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Emotion, Sunk Cost Effect, and Hasty Generalization, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 11.4% saturation with 116 hits. Analysis detected 732 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,014 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 31.6% and a BS Rank of 15% (16,659 of 19,486 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 85.50% of the article peer group.
Neighbors of a metal foundry accused of pollution violations on St.
Paul’s East Side packed an administrative court hearing Tuesday in the state’s attempt to revoke the factory’s operation permit.
About 30 residents crammed into a hearing room at the Minnesota Court of Administrative Hearings, several sitting on the floor or standing after all available seats were filled.
They came to witness the first major hearing in the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s (MPCA) case to revoke the operations permit of Northern Iron and Machine located off Phalen Boulevard, a move that would shutter a factory that has melted metal and formed it into products for more than 100 years.
“I apologize; it’s standing room only in here at this point,” Administrative Law Judge Megan McKenzie told the crowd.
Mckenzie is charged with overseeing a rare process in Minnesota: an attempt by state regulators to revoke a business’ operations permit.
At Tuesday’s hearing, she considered a motion from Northern Iron to dismiss the permit revocation case.
The MPCA moved to revoke Northern Iron’s permit in June after more than three years of legal fighting between regulators and the foundry, which is owned by a firm called Lawton Standard.
Northern Iron’s conflict with state regulators began in 2022, when inspectors with the MPCA noticed the company had added new pieces of pollution-control equipment without notifying the agency or submitting a modified permit application.
That resulted in a formal notice of violation, which was settled in a 2023 agreement that included a $41,500 fine for Northern Iron.
The following spring, the MPCA obtained new emission estimates that suggested Northern Iron was producing excessive amounts of lead and smog, and ordered Northern Iron to limit its operating hours to protect public health.
The foundry sued the state in May 2024, and won an injunction that largely allowed it to resume normal production while installing new pollution-control equipment and applying for a new permit.
Northern Iron, pictured on Oct. 9, 2025, is located on St.
Paul’s East Side.
The MPCA argues that Northern Iron can’t be trusted to operate in good faith, claiming that the foundry has repeatedly submitted inadequate, late and, at times, false statements and permit applications to regulators.
The state says Northern Iron still hasn’t produced emission estimates that show it can operate at full capacity without violating state and federal air quality standards.
“The MPCA is now at the point where, again, other enforcement tools that it would traditionally use to bring a regulated party into compliance simply cannot function anymore,” Assistant Attorney General Ryan Petty told Judge McKenzie at Tuesday’s hearing.
Northern Iron’s legal team from local firm Dorsey and Whitney argues that the state is basing its revocation process on accusations relating to the foundry’s application for a new permit, not failures to comply with its current permit, which was issued in 2003 and last amended in 2008.
“The MPCA is just barking up the wrong tree,” said Northern Iron attorney Brian Bell.
Bell said Northern Iron installed new pollution control equipment worth $2.2 million at the foundry in late 2024, and said closing the foundry would result in roughly 80 people losing their jobs.
Northern Iron has been surrounded by air monitors for more than two years that haven’t documented excessive pollution, he added.
“It’s really difficult to overstate the gravity of this matter.
If Northern Iron’s permit is withdrawn, Northern Iron will shut down,” Bell said.
Northern Iron said in legal filings that it employs 77 people who earn an average of $24.74 per hour.
Mckenzie said there are major disputes between the state and Northern Iron about the foundry’s compliance with regulators.
She took Northern Iron’s motion to dismiss the case under advisement.
There is no formal deadline for McKenzie to make a ruling on the motion.
Typically, decisions are issued within 90 days of a hearing.
If McKenzie does not grant Northern Iron’s request to dismiss the case, the MPCA’s attempt to revoke the foundry’s permit could be formally heard in court in October.
Neighbors rally after hearing
The neighbors and environmental justice advocates who packed the courtroom rallied outside after the hearing.
Northern Iron & Machine (far background in blue), pictured on Friday March 7, 2025, is located near many residential homes.
The blue wraps were installed after the factory was ordered to seal the building for emission leaks.
They talked about finding soot on their homes and worrying about eating food grown in their backyard gardens.
The foundry has been operating at usual capacity since winning an injunction in district court in 2024.
Many neighbors feel the legal fight has been a delay tactic from Northern Iron.
“What they’re doing is dragging out a process that has already dragged on far too long, while we are still breathing this air, soot is still on our houses, and we’re still living with this terrible neighbor,” said Mel Lorentz, an environmental attorney who lives near the foundry and works with the nonprofit group, East Side Neighbors for Health.
Industrial sites are common on the East Side, a diverse community that was redlined in the early 20th Century.
The racist housing policy pushed people of color into non-diserable areas with high pollution levels.
That legacy continues today, with neighborhoods with high levels of pollution and affiliated health risks being disproportionately composed of residents of color, state data show.
“Our neighborhoods are not sacrifice zones, and our health is not negotiable,” said East Side resident Danielle Swift.
Ramsey County Commissioner Mai Chong Xiong, who represents the area, said the neighborhood is an affordable area that many immigrants call home.
She has a child with asthma, and says she knows what it’s like to worry that the neighborhood you’re raising your children in is making them sick.
Northern Iron is the largest industrial source of smog pollution in Ramsey County, state data shows, and should have to demonstrate its willingness to work with state regulators, she said.
“Permits are permission to operate; they are not a right,” Xiong said.
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