Smith Foundry facing rising neighborhood demand for shutdown due to health concerns

Smith Foundry, an iron factory located in the middle of the East Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis, was facing laws and regulations and a neighborhood demand of shutdown. 

On March 7, the Minnesota Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued multiple citations for multiple violations of Smith Foundry’s occupational safety and health standards, including overexposing employees to multiple air pollutants, including respirable crystalline silica and carbon monoxide.

According to the OSHA inspection, it now faces a total violation fine of up to $15,300, and individual penalties range from $1800 to $2700.

According to Smith Foundry’s spokesperson, Blois Olson, the company is planning to work with laws and regulators to do its job at this moment, and no further information can be disclosed.

In Olson’s defense, Smith Foundry has been an important business in the industry for a long time and is also a union job provider.

“We need to shut down Smith Foundry. And we need a just transition for these workers.” Jason Chavez, the City Council member of Ward 9, tweeted in a statement on his account.

This is also not the first time an environmental agency found Smith Foundry for its activity for pollution.

In November 2023, an Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) investigation found Smith Foundry was discovered to be in violation of the Clean Air Act.

“The level of negligence here is shocking, and only further impresses the need to close Smith Foundry,” posted Anquam Mahamoud, the newly endorsed candidate for Minnesota House of Representatives for District 62B, where East Philips is located, on her Twitter account.

“This mode of residential industrial manufacturing is outdated, and we have a responsibility to residents to buy them out, require more of the MPCA, and provide the regulatory tools for cities to address the issue locally.” Mahamoud posted.

According to the data from Minnesota Compass, East Phillips is a district primarily with low-income and people of color. 76.6% of people of color who live there are Black and Indigenous people. 56% of people do not speak English, and 19% speak English less than very well.

“Not only does a majority non-white district experience some of the worst air and land pollution in the state but then a diverse workforce is further exploited to work in substandard facilities that do not place their health or autonomy first.” Mahamoud posted.

“A lot of the healthcare organizations, the public health associations were not paying attention to a lot of what each Philips neighborhood and Little Earth were saying and about the huge public health implications of what the city of Minneapolis wanted to do with that site.” said Mateo Frumholtz, the organizer of East Phillips Health Team.

According to Frumholtz, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) issued the Smith Foundry an operational permit in 1992 that expired in 1997, but they have not had to update their permits at all since then.

“It's been [almost] over 30 years of them without a valid permit. How can any organization/entity, especially one that emits air pollution in a residential area, how are they not required to do ongoing permit evaluation and re-permitting processes by the entity that's supposed to be regulating them?” said Frumholtz.

According to Frumholtz, at a foundational level, it is a glaring omission of the regulatory entities. 

Frumholtz pointed out he saw very little authority to any entity, whether it be the city, the county or the states saying this is a residential neighborhood. And they can't have a foundry in the middle of a residential neighborhood anymore.

“Maybe the case was many decades ago that was more of an industrial area. Transportation wasn't that accessible, and people needed to get away to get to work. But today, in this day and age, no foundry would be allowed to build a new facility anywhere near a residential area. And yet, we seem to have no problem, no qualms, no issues with the fact that one exists in a residential area today,” said Frumholtz.

“Especially when you look at the existing health disparities in that community as it is, the zip code that East Philips is in has some of the worst asthma hospitalizations and emergency department visits rates in the entire metro area,” said Frumholtz, “I don't think any of us would doubt that there's a clear association between poor air quality and poor health.”

“There's so many public health interventions that we could and should be doing to address the issues that East Phillips residents have and saying to Smith boundary that they have to relocate is top of mind being one of them.” Frumholtz said. 

Ladii Mack, in the neighborhood right next to the Smith Foundry, said, “I felt like if they're already in violation, why haven't they shut them down yet? I don't think it should enter an environment where all these people are living.”

Currently, this problem is not only happened to Smith Foundry but also many other foundries such as St. Paul Brass and Northern Iron.

East Phillips was designated a priority EPA superfund site for arsenic contamination in 2007.

According to the organizer of the East Philips Health team, they are now working on getting a hearing for an amortization bill, SF 4361, that could allow the legislature to take concrete steps to regulate further and phase out harmful land uses and facilities that no longer conform to current zoning laws.