pca.state.mn.us

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) completed 147 enforcement cases for water quality, air quality, hazardous waste, stormwater, and wastewater violations in the first half of 2026. Environmental enforcement investigations often take several months, in some cases more than a year, to complete the investigation and issue final enforcement documents and penalties to regulated parties.

The reasons people choose an e-bike can be as practical as they are personal: a shorter commute, a car-free errand run, a way to carry groceries, or simply the ability to go a little farther without arriving sweaty and tired. For Angela Olson, an e-bike has meant all of the above. As the deputy director of Bicycle Alliance Minnesota (Bike MN), she spends her days supporting efforts to make Minnesota safer for people walking, biking, rolling, and using transit.

Construction of two rooms made entirely from reused materials is underway at the Minnesota State Fair. When the historic Victoria Cross building on Saint Paul’s Grand Avenue came down this spring, not everything was lost. Before demolition began, local salvage business LumberStash led an effort to rescue everything from 1920s porcelain light fixtures and stained-glass windows to steel beams, toilets, lumber, and furniture.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) fined iron ore pellet producer United Taconite LLC $22,980 for a violation of its air permit at its Fairlane plant near Forbes. On Oct. 25, 2024, MPCA staff discovered that the company had failed to carry out necessary testing to verify that its particulate matter emissions were within permitted limits. United Taconite was required to perform these tests by November 2023.

Little Falls Dam. Photo: Little Falls Chamber and Tourism Lori Becker. Photo: Mumble Media Lori Becker has spent her life teaching outdoors, believing the best classroom has no walls. In Little Falls, she loves unloading a bus full of kids near a riverbank and watching wonder take over. “Water brings out their curiosity,” she said. Her lessons range from dipnetting insects to tracing the water cycle and exploring how water connects plants, animals, and people.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) is seeking public comment on a proposal from Metropolitan Council Environmental Services (MCES) to replace a wastewater lift station intended to accommodate future population growth in the northwest region of the metro area. Currently, MCES is permitted to process 43 million gallons of wastewater per day at its current lift station in Brooklyn Park.

Members of Tree Trust’s Career Pathways program receive training and provide tree care and landscaping services across the metro. Photo: Tree Trust For 50 years, Tree Trust has been connecting people and trees in communities across the Twin Cities. The Saint Paul nonprofit provides job training for young people, partners with communities to plant and care for thousands of trees each year, and delivers professional landscaping and tree care services.

Photo: Environmental Initiative Project Clean Air Repair (Project CAR) will celebrate its 1,000th vehicle repair this week, marking a major milestone in nearly a decade of improving air quality while helping income-qualified Minnesotans keep safe, reliable transportation.

Daniels Sharpsmart, Inc., a waste management company with a facility in Shakopee, has paid $47,000 in penalties for improper hazardous waste storage and for violating its infectious waste management plan.

On Nov. 20, 2025, MPCA staff conducted an inspection at a Yale Holdings site in Garrison and noted land disturbance despite there being no construction stormwater permit for the site. Further inspection confirmed that Yale Holdings had constructed a building on the site as of July 26, 2023, without a permit. The company failed to obtain a construction stormwater permit until Jan. 12, 2026.