South St. Paul Community and Sanimax

Community Update – April 2026

For generations, our South St. Paul facility has been part of this community. We recognize the responsibility that comes with that presence, and we remain fully committed to improving the concerns that have impacted our neighbors.

In March 2025, we finalized a settlement agreement with the City of South St. Paul that formalized a shared commitment to facility performance improvement between Sanimax and the City. Since then, we’ve been working in coordination with the City of South St. Paul and maintaining communication with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) as appropriate.

Building the Right Plan
The majority of 2025 was dedicated to developing a clear, responsible roadmap for improvement. We engaged leading experts in environmental engineering, ambient environmental control, and industrial process optimization to ensure we are implementing the most effective, durable solutions. While working with Sanimax, these professionals are also coordinating with the City of South St. Paul’s consultant keeping objectives aligned and in sight.

A major component of our current work is a “fingerprinting” study. This effort includes detailed field measurements to establish a baseline of ambient air characteristics around the facility. Once this analysis is complete, it will provide a transparent benchmark to measure future improvements.

Upgrades and System Improvements
While planning progressed, we also moved forward with several facility upgrades:

• New air scrubber and new cooker installation in late 2024, which contributed to a strong start to 2025.
• Enhancements to our cooking system controls and automation to reduce operational variability.
• Upgrades to mechanisms within air-handling and abatement systems.

Although 2025 began with clear improvement, the record-setting Minnesota temperatures in July and August created significant operational challenges. These extreme conditions affected system performance and contributed to episodes that fell short of both community expectations and our own standards. Understanding and addressing these impacts has been a central focus of our offseason work, helping us refine and adapt our newer equipment for similar conditions in the future.

Preparing for Warmer Weather
As we prepare for upcoming warm-weather months, we have already initiated our summer preparedness sessions. These sessions focus on system readiness, preventative measures, and operational adjustments informed by last year’s learnings.

Continuing Our Collaboration
Ongoing conversations with our community partners remain an essential part of our commitment to transparency, accountability, and partnership with the community. In the coming weeks, we will meet with the City of South St. Paul for our regular quarterly update, followed by an update to the City Council.

We appreciate your ongoing support and engagement as we remain dedicated to continuous improvement and open communication with the community. As always, if you have questions, please email us directly at SSP-Community@sanimax.com.