Achievement Award

Reducing the Waste Line

2008 Lake Superior Magazine Achievement Award honors
Kurt Soderberg

by Konnie LeMay

When Kurt Soderberg became executive director of the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District in 1991, the 20-year-old district had met incredible goals, but faced daunting challenges.

The horrid condition of the St. Louis River - one of Lake Superior’s two largest tributaries - spurred state Representative Willard Munger to push the Minnesota Legislature for creation of the 530-square-mile district in 1971.

By 1980, two years after treating wastewater for 18 towns and seven major industries, WLSSD had cleaned the floating scum from the river, reduced the toxic chemicals entering it and opened the way for reintroduction of sturgeon.

Yet when Kurt took the reins, the district faced budgetary shortfalls (though headed in the right fiscal direction) and the stink from some processes brought nose-holding cries of “foul!” Things looked darkest, Kurt says, in 1995 when the treatment plant had a large fire, faced lawsuits over its solid waste authority (it eventually won) and had problems with wastewater discharge. Another low point came in 2003 when sewage overflows from WLSSD and Duluth’s shared system made the district seem like a polluter rather than a pollution preventer.

Before he retired this June after nearly 28 years with WLSSD and 17 of those years at its helm, Kurt and his staff had deftly met many of those challenges - though the sources of overflows are still being addressed - and created a national role model for responsible management of water and solid waste. The facility consistently discharges clean water that exceeds pollutant removal requirements. The district was honored with a national award this year for achieving its eighth year of 100 percent compliance with its clean-water discharge permit.

Not bad for a man whose university degrees - bachelor’s and master’s - are in psychology, not engineering. But getting people and businesses to buy into reuse, recycling and responsible disposal is more a matter for psychology than technology.

“People will do the right thing … as long as it’s convenient,” says Kurt, under whose direction WLSSD’s recycling and safe disposal sites are open weekends.

“Even though I joke a lot about my training being in psychology, there are a lot of practical applications to what I learned. We were changing behaviors, behaviors of ordinary citizens. … I think we showed a lot of facilities, industrial and wastewater, that you could make very good progress by working with people.”

Harold Frederick, a partner in the law firm of Fryberger, Buchanan, Smith & Frederick that has represented WLSSD since 1973, says, “The community owes a lot to Kurt’s leadership at the district and to the fact that there’s been a solid board right from the beginning.” Harold grew up near the St. Louis River and never thought he’d see high-end homes built along the once smelly waters. His mother forbade him to swim, but he’d allow his grandchildren to enter the river now - a telling testimony.

In looking back at his career, Kurt lists a few points of personal pride spawned from facility success.

“The blue (recycle) bins around the community have been one thing that I look back on with a lot of pride.”

He also counts highly WLSSD’s wide variety of educational brochures aimed as such things as the dangers of home burn barrels - the No. 1 source of airborne dioxins - or describing safe disposal of mercury in dental or other products. Duluth was the first city in the nation to ban the sale of medical thermometers with mercury.

Under Kurt’s watch, WLSSD launched informational campaigns to encourage proper waste handling among individuals and organizations. It established a household hazardous waste disposal site where, for example, each year about $85,000 worth of leftover paint brought in gets used by others. Partnering with Goodwill Industries, WLSSD helped implement a program that recycles most parts of 1,500 mattresses a month - saving huge amounts of landfill space and providing jobs at Goodwill.

In fact, Kurt promoted programs to recover resources from solid waste like the mandatory food waste recovery from restaurants, medical and higher education facilities and grocers (with full implementation in 2009); 50 businesses ranging from hospitals to grain elevators voluntarily participated. Some food goes into WLSSD’s large composting operation, which offsets costs of processing material that might otherwise fill limited landfill space.

“Kurt took the district into what I call a more modern age,” says Chuck Williams, former executive director, WLSSD.

Kurt credits his staff and nine-member citizen board of directors with the successes. “The commitment runs throughout the organization. These folks who work there really believe in the mission of WLSSD. That’s the way they approach their job every day.”

The feeling among staff is mutual. “Kurt is very deliberate and forward-planning, but he also has such a calm demeanor … it’s really helped him to deal with all the different interests,” says Marianne Bohren, the current WLSSD executive director.

Kurt grew up in Ely, Minnesota, and met his future wife Barb while working for the U.S. Forest Service. Barb retired from the service two years ago.

In his “retired” life, Kurt wants to focus on “golfing and grandfathering,” the latter with his daughter Erin’s three children, a 21/2-year-old and 11-month-old twins. He and Barb also plan to take advantage of being able to advocate for environmental ideas without the constraints of representing any governmental agency.

“We’re looking to be more outspoken,” says Kurt, “and we’re going to be.”

The Western Lake Superior Sanitary District facility in Duluth (top) was headed for 17 years by Kurt Soderberg (bottom photo), discussing the district here with Minnesota U.S. Representative James Oberstar.

Under Kurt’s watch, WLSSD launched informational campaigns to encourage proper waste handling among individuals and organizations. It established a household hazardous waste disposal site where, for example, each year about $85,000 worth of leftover paint brought in gets used by others. Partnering with Goodwill Industries, WLSSD helped implement a program that recycles most parts of 1,500 mattresses a month - saving huge amounts of landfill space and providing jobs at Goodwill.

In fact, Kurt promoted programs to recover resources from solid waste like the mandatory food waste recovery from restaurants, medical and higher education facilities and grocers (with full implementation in 2009); 50 businesses ranging from hospitals to grain elevators voluntarily participated. Some food goes into WLSSD’s large composting operation, which offsets costs of processing material that might otherwise fill limited landfill space.

“Kurt took the district into what I call a more modern age,” says Chuck Williams, former executive director, WLSSD.

Kurt credits his staff and nine-member citizen board of directors with the successes. “The commitment runs throughout the organization. These folks who work there really believe in the mission of WLSSD. That’s the way they approach their job every day.”

The feeling among staff is mutual. “Kurt is very deliberate and forward-planning, but he also has such a calm demeanor … it’s really helped him to deal with all the different interests,” says Marianne Bohren, the current WLSSD executive director.

Kurt grew up in Ely, Minnesota, and met his future wife Barb while working for the U.S. Forest Service. Barb retired from the service two years ago.

In his “retired” life, Kurt wants to focus on “golfing and grandfathering,” the latter with his daughter Erin’s three children, a 21/2-year-old and 11-month-old twins. He and Barb also plan to take advantage of being able to advocate for environmental ideas without the constraints of representing any governmental agency.

“We’re looking to be more outspoken,” says Kurt, “and we’re going to be.

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