The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday found problems with another operating permit for Suncor’s Commerce City refinery issued in Colorado and ordered revisions. Regional and national EPA offices raised the same objections and requested revisions to another state permit for Suncor in 2022 and 2023.
The EPA, which reviewed petitions from environmental advocates, sent the proposed state permits for Suncor’s 1 and 3 plants back to the Colorado Division of Air Pollution Control to answer detailed questions or conduct direct reviews of the permit mandates. He signed the order Acting EPA Administrator Jane Nishida agreed in part with defense attorneys’ claims that the state permit may not properly monitor and account for pollutants such as nitrogen oxides, particulate matter and volatile organic compounds coming from a large refinery.
“The EPA has once again found that Colorado is failing to adequately monitor toxic air pollution and is failing to hold Suncor fully accountable for protecting clean air and public health,” said Jeremy Nichols of the Center for Biological Diversity, which protested the plants. 1 and 3 permits – west side of sprawling complex – next to Sierra Club.
“While this is an important victory for clean air, it is still more than disappointing that the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment refuses to do the right thing,” Nichols said.
The division said it had read the 39-page objection to the permit and had no comment Tuesday.
Objections from advocates that the EPA approved this week are similar to criticisms of the state’s 2022 permit update for Suncor’s Plant 2, the eastern portion of the refinery. The Denver-based EPA Region 8 office first objected to the state’s draft permit for Plant 2 in 2022. The state made revisions, but environmental advocates successfully petitioned the EPA in 2023 for more changes.
Permits for Plants 1 and 3 were issued by the state in March and survived initial EPA review. However, the Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity filed formal petitions.
“All the EPA agreed with us on were matters that the agency had already objected to in connection with the Plant 2 permit,” Nichols said.
Colorado’s biggest air polluters can continue to operate under the terms of expired permits as long as they meet renewal deadlines. Colorado was far behind in issuing updated permits. Various forms of permits for the Suncor 1 and 3 plants have been up for renewal and state proposal since 2016 under the new EPA ruling.
Suncor, Colorado’s only refinery, produces gasoline and other petroleum products for transportation as well as jet fuel for airports. The Canadian utility frequently violates Colorado’s air pollution laws.
The EPA and state regulators hit Suncor in July with a new round of pollution violation notices over the past two years, despite a $10.5 million settlement for similar offenses in 2021 that state officials have promised to steer the refinery toward cleaner operations.
A 140-page litany of alleged new violations compiled by the EPA regional office in July accused Suncor of continuing to release benzene and other toxins into the air and water around the Commerce City plant. The latest violations, including some areas the EPA failed to report in previous inspections, have drawn criticism from neighbors and environmental groups that small fines have not turned the tide Suncor’s multi-billion dollar business.
“The Commerce City refinery has been the subject of state air enforcement actions by the (state Division of Air Pollution Control) annually for at least the past 10 years,” the EPA’s new notice of violation noted.