The pungent odor that occasionally wafts about South St. Paul and has given the city a reputation for reeking just might become a thing of the past, city officials say.

South St. Paul and Sanimax USA have reached a settlement that officially labels the animal rendering plant a “significant odor generator” and requires the company to develop a plan for continued upgrades to its anti-stench equipment and take other steps to get into compliance with the city’s “odor pollution” ordinance.

The settlement, which was approved by the South St. Paul City Council on Monday, follows a decision a year ago by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholding the city’s odor ordinance and rezoning of a 235-acre area where Sanimax sits that makes the company legally non-conforming.

The odor ordinance, enacted in 2014, is believed to be the only one of its kind in Minnesota.

Sanimax and the city have been at odds over odor for at least 15 years. Although the century-old stockyards closed in April 2008, Sanimax, one of the lone remaining vestiges of the yards, has been consistently blamed by residents and city officials for the lingering stench, leading to complaints, studies, lawsuits and lots of crinkled noses.

Sanimax, which is headquartered in Montreal, processes meat byproducts, hides and used cooking oil into animal feed and biofuels at its South St. Paul plant that’s located in BridgePoint Business Park just north of the Interstate 494 Wakota Bridge.

Over the years, residents have also pointed fingers at other potential sources of stink — Twin City Hide, Twin City Tanning, Long Cheng Hmong Livestock & Meat Processing Plant and even the city’s compost site — but Sanimax now is the lone entity defined as a significant odor generator. Between 2020 and 2024, the city doled out to Sanimax nearly 60 administrative citations for “verified odor complaints.”

At Monday’s meeting, South St. Paul Mayor Jimmy Francis said it took “a lot of relationship building” and negotiations over several years from many people on both sides to reach the settlement. He said the goal was to support the business, which goes back nearly six decades in South St. Paul, and also residents who have to deal with the odor.

“And it’s going to help us, perhaps, remove that stinky bridge moniker that we have,” he added.

Jordan Unser, director of manufacturing for Sanimax’s USA operations, said Wednesday the settlement is a “very positive step forward for us.”

“The ability to have open dialogue with the city and with the neighbors, that’s what’s important to me,” said Unser, who joined the company in August 2023 after six years working in operations roles for Target Corp. “And we’ve made some good steps towards that in the past couple of months. But now being on the same page to do that going forward, I think is going to be a home run for everybody.”

Sanimax made significant investments and put improvements in place at the South St. Paul plant in late 2024, he said, “and we’re seeing the fruits of those and we’re seeing results. But it’s an ongoing process. And we’re going to continue to make those investments in our facility.”

Settlement details

Most important, the settlement makes Sanimax a “significant odor generator” in accordance with the ordinance, City Administrator Ryan Garcia told council members Monday.

In order to get the designation, the city’s code enforcement has to verify seven odor complaints by an industry, facility or source within a six-month period, or determine they are the cause of odor emissions resulting in significant odor complaints.

Complaints submitted through the city’s website or otherwise are verified through an investigation by city code enforcement that includes use of an olfactory device that’s called a “Nasal Ranger” and measures and quantifies odor strength in ambient air.

Garcia said Sanimax cannot appeal its new designation and that it is obligated to develop an odor management plan that requires them to “implement the best, practical odor-control technology to mitigate and come into compliance with the city’s ordinance.”

The city, meanwhile, agreed to dismiss the 57 administrative citations it issued Sanimax between 2020 and 2024 for “verified odor complaints.” The company had contested the citations with the Minnesota Office of Administrative Hearings, which had yet to rule on them.

In 2020, after the stench lingered, the city council amended the ordinance by adding the administrative citations, which can lead to a fine. The process includes one warning letter followed by a citation for a second violation. Citations start at $200 and double for each subsequent citation before maxing out at $2,000 per violation.

The city’s ordinance tweak led to the citations against Sanimax. The company then filed two lawsuits in U.S. District Court that challenged the constitutionality of the odor ordinance and a 2020 zoning ordinance that designated the rendering plant as a legally nonconforming use, which means it cannot expand its footprint.

In late-2024, Sanimax approached the city to propose finding a settlement agreement outside the Office of Administrative Hearings process, Garcia said.

The settlement gives Sanimax 90 days to submit its plan to the city for approval and an additional six months to get it going. In the event the city does not give its green light, then the company has 30 days to resubmit for approval.

The city will complete follow-up odor testing to see if the plan worked. If not, Sanimax will owe the city $52,000 above the $55,000 the company agreed to pay as part of the settlement.

Court battles

Sanimax first sued South St. Paul in 2017, asking the court to rule that the ordinance is “unconstitutionally void for vagueness” and that the city’s use of the Nasal Ranger violated Sanimax’s due process rights. The company dropped the federal lawsuit after the city council amended the ordinance three months later by specifying the testing threshold and the testing device.

In March 2018, a class action lawsuit was filed by South St. Paul residents against Sanimax alleging the company’s “noxious odors … invade” the plaintiffs’ properties, causing “damages through negligence, gross negligence and nuisance.”

A federal judge in June 2020 approved a settlement agreement that required Sanimax to pay $750,000 into a fund for qualifying class members and invest at least $450,000 on projects aimed at reducing pollutants, contaminants and odors emitting from the plant.

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