The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is once again revising one of the permits that allow the Suncor Energy oil refinery in Commerce City to pollute, and once again environmentalists and nearby residents are accusing state regulators of doing more to protect Suncor’s finances than the health of the community.
The state’s “handling of this is bewildering,” said Tykee James, senior environmental justice campaign manager with Conservation Colorado. “They have defied the Environmental Protection Agency’s guidance not once, but twice.”
The department’s Air Pollution Control Division has rewritten sections of the air-pollution permit for Suncor’s Plant 2 for the second time after the EPA objected in August 2023 to multiple provisions and sent it back to the state for revision.
The newest version must be approved by the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission, a body that sets policy for air emissions, and a public comment hearing was held Wednesday evening. The next public comment session will be via Zoom at 8:30 a.m. Saturday. To register, visit cdphe.colorado.gov/aqcc.
People who participated in Wednesday’s virtual meeting ranged from north Denver mothers whose children suffer from asthma to a Denver public health official, as well as a young woman who recited a protest poem and members of Commerce City’s City Council, including Mayor Steve Douglas.
Everyone called for tighter restrictions on Suncor’s emissions of carbon monoxide and fine particulate matter, which is made up of tiny particles of ash, soot and smoke that are belched into the air during the refining process.
“The particulate matter pollution from Suncor is linked to serious health issues from aggravated asthma to reduced lung function and an increased risk of heart attacks,” James said. “Our children and elderly are particularly vulnerable and every day without proper oversight puts them at greater risk.”
The Suncor refinery operates under two federal Title IV permits, which determine what kind of pollution the refinery can expel into the air, and how much of it can be discharged. The permits are written by the company then reviewed and revised by the Air Pollution Control Division before going to the EPA for approval.
EPA raises objections to permit
Twice now, the EPA objected to portions of Suncor’s permit after environmental advocates petitioned the federal agency to force the state to reconsider it. It’s a rare move for the federal agency, and it means Suncor continues operating under an old permit that should have been updated more than a decade ago.
When the EPA most recently objected to the permit, in August 2023, the agency directed the state health department to look into additional operational requirements for Plant 2’s fluid catalytic cracking unit, which converts crude oil into petroleum products such as gasoline.
The EPA wanted more done to limit carbon monoxide and particulate matter being released by the unit, which critics say is a continued source of the company’s air pollution violations.
The federal agency also recommended the state revisit modifications made to equipment at the plant and determine whether new requirements should be put in place for when the refinery reports a malfunction or shuts down and then restarts equipment. All of those situations typically cause the plant to release high levels of air toxins such as sulfur dioxide and benzene.
In the past, the state has not required Suncor to get permits every time it performed maintenance or upgraded equipment at the plant, saying the Air Pollution Control Division does not have the authority to review and approve those plans.
The EPA indicated the division does have the authority and should exercise it through the permit.
However, the Air Pollution Control Division did not adopt those more aggressive recommendations in its latest revision of Suncor’s permit.
Carrisa Money, the division’s Title IV operating permit unit manager, said the agency addressed the EPA’s orders by adding new requirements toward the fluid catalytic cracking unit’s maintenance plan and a provision that would ask Suncor to create a training simulator for employees who work on the unit.
The latest version of the permit also includes more air monitoring requirements, many of them created by the Colorado General Assembly, Money said.
“None of the changes made in this reopening action result in any emission changes for the facility,” she said.
A Suncor representative who spoke at the meeting did not address any specifics within the latest version of the permit but gave a presentation on the importance of Suncor to Colorado’s economy.
The refinery processes 98,000 barrels of crude oil per day to make gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and asphalt, with 90% of those products sold and used in Colorado, said April Maestas, the refinery’s director of engineering. The facility employees about 500 people.
Suncor Energy has invested $1.5 billion in the Commerce City refinery since taking ownership in 2005, in large part to reduce its pollution, Maestas said.
“We do take air quality very seriously,” she said. “We have pollution controls built into our unit designs to minimize emissions to the environment.”
“Big ticket items”
But those at Wednesday’s meeting wanted the state to adopt stricter requirements on a refinery that has a long history of violating the terms of its permits.
The EPA gave significant recommendations to the state for revising the permit, focusing on “big ticket items” that have not been previously addressed at the refinery, said Bill Obermann, air program supervisor at the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment.
The state chose instead to recommend minor changes to the permit rather than requiring the company to invest in more expensive equipment upgrades, Obermann said.
“Really, the division has chosen to downplay or ignore the content of most of the significant EPA directives because they are such big ticket items,” he said.
Obermann and other speakers urged the Air Quality Control Commission to send state air quality regulators back to the drawing board.
There is no deadline for when the state must send the latest version of Suncor’s permit to the EPA, but once it does, the federal agency has 45 days to accept or reject it. By then, a new president will be in office and his administration’s handling of air-pollution permits is expected to be more lax than the Biden administration.
“Suncor has let us down and so has the air quality division at the state Department of Public Health and Environment,” said Rosanna Reyes, a registered nurse who specializes in pediatric health. “The division needs to step up and better serve the people of Adams County and the Front Range in Colorado. The division needs to be more stringent in following the EPA’s findings and recommendations.”
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