Hennepin County Profiles

To learn more about how Hennepin County works for you, the District 3 team has started a profile series with employees of the county who live in the district. Each month will spotlight a different person from varying departments and occupations.  Find out about the day-to-day aspects of occupational fields and work environments at the county, and how each person’s work affects your life.

Rosemary Lavin
Assistant Director of Environmental Services
Environmental Services
Whittier Neighborhood Resident
Celebrating 26 years at Hennepin County

Describe your work.

I oversee environmental protection activities in the Hennepin County Environmental Services Department. These activities include licensing and inspecting businesses that generate hazardous waste, cleaning up contaminated properties, and protecting and restoring natural resources.

We license more than 5,000 businesses that produce hazardous waste, ranging from small auto body shops to major manufacturing facilities. Our goal is to ensure that they manage their hazardous wastes properly to prevent pollution and protect the environment.

We coordinate the cleanup of contamination on county projects such as road construction and new buildings. We also provide funding and technical assistance for the cleanup of contaminated sites, or brownfields, which are areas where redevelopment is hindered by the presence of hazardous waste or pollution.

To protect our land and water, we partner with landowners, cities, watersheds, park districts and the state to implement programs and projects that preserve or restore natural resources throughout the county. Projects may include working with a landowner to restore a native prairie or a neighborhood to install rain gardens that protect a nearby lake.

The Environmental Services Department also oversees solid waste management by implementing programs to reduce waste, increase recycling, divert organic waste, and manage the operation of the Hennepin Energy Recovery Facility. Additionally, the department implements environmental education programs to engage the community in taking action to protect the environment.

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What part of your job do you find most challenging?

Protecting natural resources in the county is complex because land use in the county varies widely and there are numerous entities in the county working on natural resources issues.

Hennepin County includes an urban core, inner and outer ring suburbs and rural areas, which all have different needs when it comes to natural resource management and planning. Many entities in the county have a role in water and land conservation, including cities, watersheds and park districts, which makes developing and maintaining partnerships critical to protecting natural resources.

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What do you find most enjoyable?

 

I really enjoy working with my colleagues in Environmental Services because they are committed to protecting the environment. I also find it rewarding to see the results of our work in the community, whether it’s a redeveloped brownfield site, a water quality restoration project or recycling bins in parks and businesses. And it’s not just seeing our work in the community, but hearing about it from friends who are taking it upon themselves to be advocates.

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What should others know about the work you do?

We are facing some big environmental challenges, but our individual and seemingly small actions do make a difference. Hennepin County strives to give people the information, services and resources they need to take action protect the environment, but in the end we depend on the choices that our residents and businesses make.

There are many decisions you make every day that impact the environment. Could you walk to the store? Are you going to bring a reusable grocery bag? Will you pick up trash you see along the way? The environmental challenges we face can be impacted in a meaningful way if we all commit to taking action.

 

The Department of Environmental Services protects and preserves the environment to enhance the quality of life for current and future generations. Hennepin County Environmental Services programs focus on reducing and responsibly managing waste, protecting and preserving ecosystems, delivering clean energy and promoting environmental stewardship. For more information, click here: www.hennepin.us/environment