Emails show Hennepin County officials tracked environmental justice activists, groups allege

The emails, obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request and with some published by the Zero Burn Coalition and the Minnesota Environmental Justice Table (MNEJT), lay out what the groups describe as a surveillance operation targeting activists pushing to shut down the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center (HERC), an incinerator that burns 365,000 tons of trash annually in north Minneapolis.

Much of the alleged monitoring ran through Joe Vital, an environmental engagement coordinator hired by the county in 2021 who was considered by many environmental justice leaders to be an ally and associate. In June 2023, Vital joined a Zoom meeting where advocates discussed next steps in their campaign, according to the emails. The meeting was open to the public, but organizers vet who is on the call to determine whether industry or political opponents are present. Vital developed a dossier on attendees and their planned activities, which he sent to his superiors, including department director Rosemary Lavin.

“Why are public resources and county staff time being directed toward monitoring community members who are simply organizing to shut down an aging, outdated trash burner that should have been closed nearly a decade ago?” Minneapolis organizer Audua Pugh asked county political leadership during a board meeting this week.

The emails also show that county employee Mallory Anderson got on advocates’ email list without their knowledge and forwarded messages to David McNary, a county official who sits on the board of the Minnesota Resource Recovery Association, an industry trade group. In March 2024, McNary wrote that he feared a proposed environmental justice bill “could impact [incinerator] facilities as well as every other production, processing and industrial facility in the state”. The next day, he sent advocates’ emails to an industry trade group attorney, the HERC operator’s president and other industry representatives. The efforts to help kill the bill were successful.

In another instance, Vital tried to confirm the identity of a whistleblower during a conversation with Khan, a recording shows. Khan said that when activists confronted Vital, he claimed he was actually working for them and that his activity was a ploy to gain intelligence on county officials. Vital did not respond to a request for comment. Khan said the activists do not believe Vital’s claim and that he had provided little information of value.

A spokesperson for Hennepin County said the allegations “mischaracterize the county’s community engagement work and staff responsibilities”. The county’s actions were “ordinary functions of government”, the spokesperson said, adding that officials “routinely attend public community meetings, stakeholder discussions and participate in social media to listen, learn, share information, and understand different perspectives on issues affecting the county and our residents”. “The county seeks to find alignment, when possible, but working together does not mean agreement on every issue,” the spokesperson said.

Similar battles to close polluting facilities are playing out in cities including Baltimore and Miami. Incinerators have drawn increased scrutiny in part because they are known to release high levels of PFAS “forever chemicals” and are also said to emit high levels of other pollutants.