Albert Lea company fined more than $50,000 by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency

By KAALTV

(ABC 6 News) – An Albert Lea ethanol production facility is being fined by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) $52,805 due to air pollution, according to a press release from MPCA.

The fine comes as a result of an MPCA investigation into POET Biorefining-Glenville LLC, which the agency says violated several air permit conditions between 2018 and 2023 at its facility near Albert Lea.

An MPCA staff review of company records confirmed violations including:

  • Failure to conduct daily emissions observations on several pieces of equipment during the second half of 2021 and first half of 2022 reporting periods.
  • Failure to maintain floating roof legs for two ethanol tanks resulting in excess volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions for a nearly five-year period.
  • Failed performance stack tests for a cooling baghouse in April 2022 with emission limits exceeded for particulate matter (PM) by 16%, and for small particulate matter (PM10) and very small particulate matter (PM2.5) by 84%.
  • Failed performance stack tests for cooling systems in November 2022 with emission limits exceeded for PM10 and PM2.5 by 10%, and VOCs by 13%.
  • Failure to prevent fugitive emissions of particulate matter from a cooling cyclone system in February 2023.

In addition to paying the $52,805 civil penalty, POET Biorefining has completed a series of corrective actions including:

  • Submitting a permit amendment to increase emission limits for VOCs, PM, PM10 and PM2.5 for its cooling systems and plans to maintain the limits.
  • Submitting an updated operation and maintenance plan including a list of all control equipment; a plan ensuring control equipment operates while pollution emission units are operating; a plan ensuring pressure ranges are maintained for equipment; and a plan to maintain recordkeeping including employee training that demonstrates implementation for all facility daily inspections for control equipment.
  • Submitting revised semiannual reports between 2018 and 2022 that document various violations, missed or deviated readings, and corrective actions.
  • Submitting a plan to maintain floating roof legs for ethanol tanks in the future.
  • Submitting an updated fugitive emissions control plan for visible and fugitive emissions for several pieces of equipment.
  • Submitting revised emission inventory reports for the years of 2018 through 2021 for tank excess emissions.
  • Submitting a plan ensuring that daily recordkeeping is conducted in the future.