Decades of worry melt away as Minneapolis residents celebrate Smith Foundry closure

Residents gathered Friday to celebrate the closure of Smith Foundry, ending more than 100 years of production and pollution in south Minneapolis’ East Phillips neighborhood.

“Every little ingredient that went into this fight led to this victory,” Joe Vital, an organizer with the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute, told a crowd in Cedar Field Park.

Vital grew up in East Phillips, and was one of the first residents to hear about the federal pollution violations that led to the foundry’s closing. He and dozens of residents gathered, shared food and enjoyed the moment. They screen printed fresh t-shirts with the slogan, “When we fight, we win,” and basked in the rhythm of an Indigenous drum circle.

The group included neighbors who complained about the foundry for years, citing the acrid smell and black dust the building emitted. Their fears were substantiated in May 2023, when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency conducted a surprise inspection. The EPA found that from 2018 to 2023, the foundry emitted nearly double the amount of pollution allowed by its state-issued permit. The EPA cited the foundry in August 2023 for nine violations of the Clean Air Act.

Sahan Journal reported on the violations in November, bringing them to light publicly for the first time, sparking a massive backlash from the community against the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), which regulates foundries.

That story helped ignite a fire in the community, according to Tania Rivera, an East Phillips resident who works at Círculo de Amigos, a daycare on Cedar Avenue near the foundry. Círculo de Amigos offers a nature-focused early education program. Now, they don’t have to be as mindful about watching their air monitors before taking children outside, Rivera said, adding that the air doesn’t smell foul when they arrive in the morning.

“It’s a huge peace of mind,” she said.

Many residents felt the MPCA hadn’t been paying enough attention to the facility. Smith Foundry, 1855 E 28th St., operated under a state permit issued in 1992 that had been extended for years under a measure known as permit shielding. The MPCA had been in the process of renewing Smith Foundry’s permit since 2016.

The EPA reached a settlement with Smith Foundry in June, and issued the company an $80,000 fine. The settlement barred the facility from operating as a foundry and banned it from melting and casting metal after June 2025. Zynik Capital, which bought Smith Foundry in 2022, said it would continue to use the facility for metal finishing operations. But the company dropped those plans in July, citing a strict permit application process with the state, and said it would close August 15.

EPA inspectors also inspected Smith Foundry’s nextdoor neighbor, asphalt producer Bituminous Roadways, in May 2023. Bituminous Roadways closed its south Minneapolis location this spring, which should help with air quality in the area.

State Representative Aisha Gomez, DFL-Minneapolis, has been involved in organizing around the foundry for more than 10 years. She hoped the environmental conditions in the neighborhood would improve, but said she never thought she’d see Smith Foundry go away.

“It’s kind of incredible, all the things this neighborhood has come together to do and to stop,” she said.

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