A coalition of environmental groups has appealed Colorado’s water discharge permit for the Suncor refinery, saying the state will allow a stew of PFAS “forever chemicals,” benzene and other toxins to leak into nearby waterways and neighborhoods already among the most polluted in the nation.
The coalition has asked the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to reconsider the water permit renewal it issued to Suncor in early March, and could escalate to an administrative law court if the state refuses.
The state water discharge permit “sets a PFAS limit which is too high, has inadequate PFAS monitoring requirements, gives Suncor far too long to come into compliance, and fails to prevent groundwater seepage of benzene and PFAS into Sand Creek and the Burlington Ditch,” according to the appeal by a coalition including Earthjustice, Colorado GreenLatinos, Colorado Sierra Club, Trout Unlimited and more.
Among other issues, environmental groups in March criticized the state for not requiring its highly touted, first-time PFAS limits on Suncor until 2027. Colorado officials have promoted the 70 parts per trillion PFAS discharge limits as a game-changer in regulation since first signaling them in 2021, but the environmental groups note that the EPA has since issued drinking water standards for the forever chemicals that are much tougher.
The Forever Problem
“Forever chemicals,” or PFAS, are an increasing toxic burden on Colorado. We’re committed to covering the public health threats, from water and croplands to the costs to clean them up.
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“It’s frustrating to see Colorado regulators disregard the latest science and advisory from EPA with this new Suncor permit,” said Ramesh Bhatt, chair of the Colorado Sierra Club Conservation Committee, in a release accompanying the appeal. “Suncor is now allowed to dump forever chemicals into waterways for years.”
Suncor has filed its own appeal of the permit.
“We support reasonable and feasible improvements to our water permit grounded in appropriate data, science, and Colorado law,” a Suncor spokesperson said in an email. “We support the permit’s new, more stringent PFAS limits and will be designing a new permanent PFAS treatment system. Since October 2021, we have been voluntarily treating for PFAS through our temporary system, and we will continue to treat for PFAS in accordance with the permit until the new permanent system is designed and installed.”
Other permit renewal terms from the state, though, Suncor said, “are unreasonable, impractical, and have no appreciable benefit to water quality or the environment. As we work to resolve these concerns through the appeals process and engaging collaboratively with CDPHE, we will progress with implementing aspects of the new permit, including with respect to PFAS.”
State officials said Monday they have received appeals about the water discharge permit from “Suncor and three other organizations. We are replying to each of them. We drafted the most stringent water permit in Suncor’s history and are committed to protecting our waterways. Our permitting process included substantial stakeholder outreach, and we worked with numerous community organizations as we crafted the permit.”
The new PFAS restrictions of 70 parts per trillion won’t be enforceable until April 2027, state officials said in March, because federal rules require giving Suncor enough time to build treatment facilities to get the chemicals out of water discharged from the plant. State officials and environmental groups have noted Suncor PFAS discharges spiked frequently since a December 2022 fire at the refinery, with discharge tests hitting as much as 2,500 parts per trillion in June of 2023.
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PFAS is a family of thousands of chemical variants used in waterproofing, stain resistance and coatings that essentially never degrade, and pose toxic threats to human organs and reproductive systems. After decades of use and leaking into waterways and landfills, human blood tests have found the chemicals present in nearly all people, as well as during testing of fish.
Firefighting foam was one of the primary public uses of the chemicals, and runoff from airports, military sites and firefighting stations has contaminated community water supplies across the country, including multiple sites in Colorado.
Many drinking water agencies are spending tens of millions of dollars to upgrade equipment that will filter out PFAS and other toxins to new EPA standards.
Federal officials have recently updated drinking water standards, which are far more stringent than discharge water, to as low as 0.02 parts per trillion for the variant PFOS, and 0.004 ppt for PFOA.
“The state cannot reasonably say that the 2016 drinking water standard was the appropriate measure for surface water levels and then ignore EPA’s update,” Earthjustice attorneys said Monday, in objecting to the Colorado permit.
State regulators warned Suncor of benzene violations in 2023, with possible fines from “significant noncompliance” that poured benzene-tainted water into Sand Creek at up to 160% of permitted levels in repeated leaks this year, records show.
“Due to the severity and/or persistence of these violations, the Water Quality Control Division is initiating a process to determine whether a formal enforcement action is warranted,” with potential fines of more than $61,000 a day, the division wrote to Suncor in mid-June.
Objections listed in the appeal also say the Colorado permit for Suncor does not monitor toxic chemicals in the refinery’s outfalls frequently enough, or require the company to use the optimum filtering technology.
Legislators introduced a bill this year that would bolster oversight of refineries, specifically, in the Water Quality Control Division. House Bill 1338, backed by the health department, is aimed at major “refineries,” of which Suncor is the only one in Colorado.
The bill would pay for the department to hire a refinery expert to assess potential new rules for controlling Suncor’s repeated violations of pollution limits. Suncor would also have to boost real-time emissions monitoring for the state to watch.
The bill is co-sponsored by Democratic Reps. Manny Rutinel of Commerce City and Elizabeth Velasco, Glenwood Springs, and Sen. Dafna Michaelson Jenet.