Suncor under fire again with new lawsuit, new pollution releases

The Suncor Refinery keeps reporting accidental toxic air releases into the air above its Commerce City neighborhood, and a watchdog group focused on air pollution cites the most recent incidents in pursuing a new lawsuit against the EPA for greenlighting Suncor operations. 

The Center for Biological Diversity sued the EPA on Nov. 17 in the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, saying the agency should have rejected Colorado’s operating permit renewal for the eastern portion of Suncor, called Plant 2. After demanding changes from state health regulators, the EPA approved most of the Plant 2 permit and continued its objections only on a portion of environmental groups’ petitions regarding open records. 

Allowing the rest of the permit to stay in effect will worsen Front Range air pollution as Suncor dirties the air at rates above the EPA’s own limits, the lawsuit claims. 

“Our expert modeling and the state’s modeling showed the permit allows violations” of EPA ambient air standards, said Ryan Maher, a staff attorney for the environmental nonprofit. The permit allows Suncor to “approximate” emissions rather than measuring actual pollution and starting to cut it, worsening air quality for the neighborhood that already suffers disproportionate environmental impacts, Maher said.

“This is especially egregious given the long history of noncompliance at the facility, and the weak, cost-of-doing-business fines that Suncor has received in those enforcement actions that do move forward,” Maher said. In September, for example, the EPA fined Suncor $161,000 for producing gasoline with too much benzene, while also requiring the company to buy $600,000 in clean lawn equipment for nine metro-Denver counties where ozone exceeds federal standards.

Suncor’s western portion, Plants 1 and 3 that are awaiting a permit renewal from the state, reported air violations from malfunctions on Nov. 19, the center noted. The report says the malfunction caused exceedances of carbon monoxide releases for 14 hours, and for sulfur dioxide from flaring gas for 12 hours. 

Suncor sent a statement saying, “​​The Commerce City North Denver Air Monitoring network of sensors within a 3-mile radius of the refinery did not detect any levels above the acute health reference guidelines during this event. In addition, data from Suncor’s fenceline monitoring system indicates that measured compounds were below detection.” 

Company spokesperson Leithan Slade said the detections reported by Suncor were from monitors inside the refinery complex. Slade said the company could not comment on the lawsuit. 

 The EPA is also under attack from the Center for Biological Diversity and other environmental groups for approving the state of Colorado’s anti-ozone plan. The groups claim the EPA cannot legally approve the plan because it fails to bring the northern Front Range counties into compliance with EPA ozone limits in coming years. That suit was also filed in July in the 10th Circuit.