County staff shared activist plans with waste industry, emails reveal

Newly released documents detail a multi-year effort by Hennepin County staff to gather intelligence on environmental activists. The group, known as the Zero Burn Coalition, seeks to close the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center, a facility in north Minneapolis that processes 365,000 tons of trash annually. The county used this information to help defeat state legislation that would have allowed cities to phase out polluting land uses.

The operation centered on Joe Vital, the county's environmental engagement coordinator. Activists had known Vital as an ally for years, including his work opposing the Line 3 pipeline. In June 2023, Vital attended a public Zoom meeting where advocates planned their next steps. He created a dossier listing attendees, which included a state representative and a former city council member, and sent it to his supervisors. Nazir Khan, executive director of the Minnesota Environmental Justice Table, said the group failed to screen Vital out because they believed he was a community member.

County emails show that department managers, including Rosemary Lavin and David McNary, reviewed these reports. McNary also serves on the board of the Minnesota Resource Recovery Association, an industry trade group. In March 2024, McNary forwarded activist emails to industry attorneys and the incinerator's president, Tim Steinbeck. Steinbeck called the proposed bill detrimental to the industry. The industry successfully opposed the measure, which would have given local governments more power to close aging waste facilities.

The county has defended its actions as standard engagement. A spokesperson said officials routinely attend public meetings to listen to residents and understand different perspectives. The county argued that working together does not mean agreeing on every issue. Audua Pugh, a Minneapolis organizer who was monitored, questioned the use of public resources for this purpose during a board meeting this week. She asked why staff time was directed at monitoring community members organizing to shut down an outdated trash burner.

Vital has told Khan that his role was to gather intelligence on county officials rather than the activists. He described the trade-off as offering a pound of flesh to stay in the room. Khan said Vital provided little valuable information to the activists and does not believe he is on their side. The emails also reveal that another employee, Mallory Anderson, joined activist email lists without their knowledge to collect planning documents. These documents were then shared with industry representatives as they mobilized against the state bill.

The incinerator is one of nearly 100 similar facilities operating in the United States. These plants release PFAS, known as forever chemicals, which cannot be fully destroyed during incineration. The waste management industry often markets these operations as green recycling. The new emails provide a detailed look at how local government staff interacted with both the community opposing the plant and the industry supporting it.