The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency fined American Crystal Sugar $12,315 for violating its air emissions permit at a sugar processing plant in Moorhead.
The fine against the state’s largest sugar company comes at the start of the 2024 harvest season. Because American Crystal Sugar is a co-op, the fine and cost to take corrective action will cut into farmers profits.
The $12,315 fine is miniscule compared to the $854 million the company paid out to its member farmers in 2023, according to the company’s most recent annual report.
It also comes on the heels of three fines totaling $375,835 in recent years for air and water quality violations at the company’s East Grand Forks and Crookston plants.
In the first half of 2022, emissions from the facility’s kiln exceeded the allowed amount 121 times during 414 testing periods, according to an MPCA press release.
In the fall of 2023, MPCA tested two of the plant’s boilers as part of an emissions investigation. MPCA staff found that filterable particles and particulate matter emissions from the boilers exceeded the allowable amount by 62% to 226%.
In addition to paying the fine, American Crystal Sugar also had to submit a plan to correct the kiln and re-test its stacks.