Photo essay from community meeting with MPCA about Smith Foundry air pollution

On Monday, November 27th five MCEA staff attended a community meeting in East Phillips, Minneapolis with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Here are photos we captured at the meeting. You can read more about the meeting in news coverage from MPR here. 

Over a hundred community members from East Phillips showed up to demand clean air for their neighborhood. 

MCEA communications associate and East Phillips resident Mair Allen and MCEA Healthy Communities Program Director and attorney Evan Mulholland listen to MPCA staff. 

MCEA Healthy Communities Program Director and attorney Evan Mulholland addresses the crowd as a representative speaker on behalf of the community.

Cassandra Holmes, who helped drive the campaign for the Roof Depot Urban Farm, speaks about her teenage son saying from a heart condition that is connected to pollution.

Former state representative and East Phillips resident, Karen Clark asks why it's been so many years since the MPCA looked at the permit for Smith Foundry.

Current state representative Aisha Gomez asks about a quote from MPCA Commissioner Kessler in the Star Tribune that questioned the validity of EPA findings. 

This is one parent of many whose child attends a nearby daycare who is afraid how the pollution in the neighborhood may impact his family's health. 

MPCA Commissioner Katrina Kessler says, "I am sorry that it is how it feels, that is not my intent," when community members say their concerns aren't being taken seriously. 

An EPA representative from Chicago outlines the process that's followed when violations are discovered at a facility.