The big Suncor oil refinery in Commerce City, which has been under fire for years from state regulators and environmental justice groups, is getting a “dirty,” “backroom” deal from the health department on its renewed water discharge permit, advocacy groups say.
Suncor is often dinged for its repetitive air pollution violations, but the state and environmental groups are also closely watchdogging runoff of PFAS “forever chemicals” and petroleum-related chemicals like benzene into groundwater and Sand Creek, which passes nearby. In 2024, Colorado public health officials proudly announced first-ever PFAS limits written into a Suncor water discharge renewal.
Suncor soon protested in lawsuits that the state limits went too far, adding “arbitrary” and unnecessary conditions to their discharge permit.
Environmental groups countered with their own legal actions, arguing the PFAS limit was “too high, had inadequate monitoring requirements, gave Suncor far too long to come into compliance, and failed to prevent groundwater seepage of benzene and PFAS into Sand Creek and the Burlington Ditch.” Earthjustice has been handling the challenge on behalf of a coalition that includes Sierra Club, Colorado GreenLatinos, Trout Unlimited and others.
Those advocates say they were meant to have an official seat at the table during any negotiations with Suncor over the 2024 permit, but they say they were surprised to hear of a “backdoor deal” that settled Suncor’s protests on July 23.
“They went out of the way to shut out environmental groups and community members and reached a dirty deal with Suncor behind closed doors,” said Ramesh Bhatt, conservation chair at Colorado Sierra Club. “Because of this, communities downstream of Suncor are going to continue to be exposed to dangerous chemicals like PFAS for years to come.”
The state’s settlement with Suncor includes a number of untenable and inexplicably lax provisions, Earthjustice attorney Ian Coghill said.
“What the division is agreeing to do is to not enforce the requirements of the permit as it’s written right now, while Suncor collects some information and then applies for modifications to the permit,” Coghill said. “That’s kind of disturbing, all by itself, that there are legally binding requirements on Suncor, and the division is saying, well, we’re not going to enforce them.”
Suncor did not respond to a request for comment about the water discharge permit.
The advocacy groups were well aware talks were ongoing with Suncor, and that the settlement they reached “is a win for Colorado and for nearby communities because it allows the vast majority of the new, stronger permit conditions — especially those tied to public health protections — to take effect immediately,” a state health department spokesperson said. “This means stronger limits for PFAS and other organic chemicals, tighter inspection and public notice requirements, and greater accountability without delay.”
The green groups aren’t buying it, and say their own fight against the permit from the not-tough-enough side of the argument will continue in administrative law courts.
”Our challenge is still existing and is going to go forward,” Coghill said. “So the fact that they’re boosting up these PFAS limits when they know they’re actively being challenged by the communities around there is a little tone deaf.”
In late 2022, discharges of toxic “forever chemical” PFAS into Sand Creek and the South Platte River by Suncor’s refinery spiked to thousands of times the EPA’s revised drinking water guidelines for three months, according to filings with state regulators. That was well after state officials had announced in 2021 a draft water discharge permit for Suncor that they touted for limiting PFAS for the first time.
In 2023, an Earthjustice analysis of monthly Suncor filings with the state found November 2022 readings at 1,100 parts per trillion of PFOS in discharges, or 55,000 times the downward-revised EPA requirements. Discharges of 54 parts per trillion of PFOA that month were 13,500 times the new EPA limits on that chemical, Earthjustice said.
The next years saw the state struggling to complete a final draft of that permit, and being challenged on the conditions by both Suncor and environmental objectors.