Colorado environmental groups sued owners of the Suncor refinery in federal court Tuesday seeking a halt to thousands of alleged pollution violations and asking for potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in fines.
The Earthjustice lawsuit for Colorado’s Sierra Club, 350 Colorado and GreenLatinos is the latest in a long series of state, federal and private actions against the Commerce City refinery, which has permits limiting its emissions but which repeatedly settles millions of dollars in fines for continually exceeding those caps.
The groups say they have logged 9,209 days of potential Clean Air Act violations over the past five years (exceedances of multiple substances in one day count for multiple days). “In 2020 alone, the Suncor refinery emitted approximately 20 tons of hazardous air pollutants, 500 tons of carbon monoxide, 50 tons of nitrogen oxides, 125 tons of particulate matter, 450 tons of volatile organic compounds, and 230 tons of sulfur dioxide,” according to the lawsuit and a press release.
“Suncor’s pollutants pose an ongoing health threat to the refinery’s neighbors, predominantly communities of color who are more likely to be economically disadvantaged,” Earthjustice said, in announcing the suit. “Residents of neighboring ZIP codes suffer disproportionately from high rates of asthma, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.”
Suncor spokesperson Leithan Slade, in an email response, said the company is aware of the complaint and is reviewing it.
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“Commerce City has been the sacrifice zone for corporations like Suncor for so long, the abuse to my community has been normalized and even expected to happen for Colorado’s economy,” said Renée M. Chacon, a member of GreenLatinos and a Commerce City resident. “No more normalizing this level of cumulative pollution for any community.”
The lawsuit says the Clean Air Act gives citizens, through environmental and law nonprofits if necessary, the right to force stronger action against persistent polluters.
In early July, the EPA and state regulators hit Suncor with another round of pollution violation notices for the past two years. That action came despite a $10.5 million settlement for similar 2021 transgressions that state officials vowed would set the refinery on a path to cleaner operations.
A 140-page summary of alleged new violations compiled by the EPA’s regional office accused Suncor of continued releases of benzene and other toxins into the air and water around the Commerce City plant. The newest complaints, including in some areas the EPA had not pinpointed in previous inspections, restarted criticism from neighbors and environmental groups that small fines have not altered the course of Suncor’s multi-billion dollar business.
Suncor refines vehicle fuel and airplane fuel at the Colorado plant, the only refinery in the state and one of the few in the West.
“The Commerce City refinery has been subject to state air enforcement actions by the (state Air Pollution Control Division) annually for at least the past 10 years,” the EPA’s new notice of violations emphasized.
The July joint notice from the EPA regional office and state regulators was the first step in what may end up as the next round of fines and other penalties for Suncor, which has been the target of similar notices and subsequent negotiations in recent years. The notice asked Suncor to begin meeting with federal and state officials to either challenge the allegations or begin mitigation plans.