Holiday Stationstores and Circle K Stores must pay a $200,000 fine and spend more than $3.25 million to upgrade equipment after being found guilty of violations by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

MPCA officials say the fine was levied after an enforcement investigation found that Holiday, based in Bloomington, and Circle K, based in Charlotte, N.C., failed to properly “test, report and fix or replace corrosion protection equipment between 2019 and 2022 at five Minnesota gas station convenience stores owned by the companies,” according to a press release. The stores are located in Northfield, Owatonna, Pine City, Rochester and Walker, according to the MPCA.

The equipment, known as cathodic protection, is designed to protect older underground tank systems from corrosion that can increase the chance of leaks and petroleum releases to area soils and groundwater sources, according to the MPCA.

Operating permits granted by the MPCA require companies to test the equipment at least annually, report failed tests to the MPCA within 30 days and fix or replace equipment within 60 days of failed tests.

According to the MPCA, inspections in 2022 confirmed that “each location documented between one and six failed tests that were not reported and that the equipment was not repaired.”

The faulty storage tank systems at all five locations – which had an average age of about 40 years – have since been repaired or replaced, MPCA officials say. Company officials also have agreed to properly report and respond to any future failed tests.

In addition to paying the $200,000 civil penalty, a settlement agreement requires the companies to spend a minimum of $3.25 million to replace underground tank systems at five other locations – Forest Lake, Beaver Bay, Crosby, Duluth and Ortonville – by the end of 2024.

MPCA officials selected the five other locations “based on their proximity to nearby bodies of water and the age of their systems,” the press release states.

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MANCHESTER, New Hampshire — New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu endorsed Nikki Haley for president on Tuesday night, giving the former South Carolina governor a boost in a key early state.

“You bet your ass I am,” endorsing Haley, an energetic Sununu said to a cheering crowd packed into a ski lodge here.

“When you look at the poll numbers and you look at the ground game that Nikki has laid, it has been absolutely unbelievable,” Sununu said. “To see her out there, to see her connecting with folks, to feel that momentum — it is real, it is tangible.”

A beaming Haley walked out to a standing ovation and accepted Sununu’s endorsement with a warm embrace.

“It doesn’t get any better than this,” Haley said. “To go and get endorsed by the ‘Live Free or Die’ governor is about as rock-solid of an endorsement as we could hope for.”

Haley, though running far behind Donald Trump, has been steadily rising in polls of likely GOP primary voters in New Hampshire and sits in second place on average. Sununu, the popular governor, will now work to bring more moderate Republicans and independents who can vote in the GOP primary with him to her side.

“We’re just going a say a polite ‘thank you for your service, Mr. President.’ We’re moving on,” said Sununu, a supporter-turned-critic of Trump.

Rival campaigns downplayed Sununu’s endorsement in statements on Tuesday, arguing that the scion of a powerful political family in the state is just one person with limited influence.

“This puts us down one vote in New Hampshire,” Karl Rickett, a spokesperson for former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, said in a statement. “When Governor Christie is back in Londonderry tomorrow, he’ll continue to tell the unvarnished truth about Donald Trump and earn that one missing vote and thousands more.”

But Sununu, who passed on running for president himself, pledged on Tuesday to go “all-in” for Haley. He took his first stab at that on Tuesday, drawing, as Haley joked, “all of Manchester” to see her at the McIntyre Ski Area.

In backing Haley, Sununu, a vocal Trump critic, is bypassing the field’s most forceful detractor of the former president: Christie. And he’s breaking with another early state governor, Kim Reynolds of Iowa, who is backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has all but abandoned the Granite State for Iowa.

“What happens in New Hampshire will be significantly impacted by the outcome in Iowa, where a true Trump alternative will emerge,” DeSantis campaign spokesperson Andrew Romeo said in a statement. “And when Ron DeSantis comes out in that position he will be joined by over 60 New Hampshire state legislators who stand read to take the fight to the establishment.”