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Court orders action on Suncor oil refinery air pollution permits
“This ruling is a critical rebuke to the Polis administration’s practice of putting polluters over people,” said Jeremy Nichols, Climate and Energy Program Director for WildEarth Guardians. “It means we can finally be certain that Suncor will be held accountable to meeting up-to-date clean air safeguards, operating in compliance with all laws and regulations, and protecting neighboring communities.”
The ruling comes in response to a WildEarth Guardians lawsuit filed last February challenging the Colorado Air Pollution Control Division’s failure to meet legally required deadlines to update air pollution permits for the oil refinery.
Suncor’s refinery is a massive source of toxic air pollution and harmful greenhouse gases located in Commerce City in Adams County north of Denver. It also disproportionately impacts low-income households and Latino communities primarily in the 80216 zip code, which is frequently reported as the most polluted zip code in the United States.
“Suncor has been operating for a decade with expired permits. Now tell me if your plates were expired would the government let that slide? NO,” said Ean Tafoya, Colorado State Director for GreenLatinos, a supporter of the lawsuit. “This is exactly what environmental injustice looks like. No accountability for major polluters that rain toxic emissions on communities that have been advocating with the government for years to protect their health by closing this facility and transitioning these workers and the community to a cleaner economy and environment.”
The refinery’s air pollution is worsened by the fact that Suncor chronically violates clean air laws and regulations. Even after agreeing earlier in 2020 to pay millions to resolve years of non-compliance, the company continues to violate.
Community calls to shut down the refinery intensified in 2021 as mounting reports revealed ongoing illegal air pollution and sickening emissions from the industrial facility.
WildEarth Guardians’ lawsuit targeted the Air Pollution Control Division’s failure to timely grant or deny two air pollution permits that govern the operations of Suncor’s Commerce City oil refinery. By law, the Division was required to take action within 18 months of receiving updated permit applications from the company. For one permit, the Division was required to take action in 2012. For the other, in 2018.
Although the Air Pollution Control Division has taken some steps to review Suncor’s permits, including posting notice of a draft permit for public comment on their website in February 2021, the agency was still years away from taking final action.
This week’s ruling ensures the Air Division moves “without delay” to take final action on Suncor’s permit applications.
By law, the Air Pollution Control Division must deny air permits if polluters cannot operate in compliance with clean air laws and regulations. In light of Suncor’s chronic air quality violations, WildEarth Guardians and many others have called for its permits to be denied and for the refinery to shut down and undergo remediation.
“Suncor’s pollution permits must be denied given their chronic failure to comply with clean air laws,” said Nichols. “This week’s lawsuit ruling ensures the Air Division stops dragging its feet and starts following through with its duty to deny permits when polluters refuse to comply with the very clean air safeguards meant to protect us.”
The economic benefits of closing the Suncor refinery stand to be enormous. A recent study by the Colorado Fiscal Institute found that Adams County, which is where the refinery is located, would reap upwards of $12.7 million annually due to reduced levels of adverse health impacts. Overall, Colorado stands to reap upward of $35.4 million annually.
Suncor’s oil refinery is a massive source of toxic air pollution and harmful greenhouse gases located in Commerce City north of Denver. Suncor’s air pollution disproportionately impacts low-income households and Latino communities primarily in the 80216 zip code, which is frequently reported as the most polluted zip code in the U.S. Photo by Josh Gordy.