Colorado is a year and a half behind in deadlines to regulate air pollution from the Cargill slaughterhouse and meatpacking plant in Fort Morgan and should be ordered by a judge to either deny or issue the permit, an environmental group’s new lawsuit claims.
Cargill processes thousands of head of cattle each day, with pollution coming from fossil fuel boilers, flaring, wastewater and cooking and drying equipment, according to the lawsuit filed in Morgan County District Court by the Center for Biological Diversity. The University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law Environmental Law Clinic is representing the nonprofit in the court case.
“It’s critical that industrial agriculture polluters in Colorado are held accountable for their toxic air pollution,” said CBD’s Jeremy Nichols, in an emailed statement accompanying the suit. “The Polis administration needs to stop its foot-dragging, update Cargill’s air pollution permit, and ensure the company is reining in the toxic stew it sends into our air.”
Potentially toxic materials released at the plant include hundreds of tons of particulate matter, hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide, ammonia and carbon monoxide, the suit claims. Cargill’s wastewater system creates gases, Nichols said.
“We have concerns that the permit doesn’t properly address emissions from the entirety of the wastewater treatment process, including from several open tanks,” he said. “We’re hoping that this permitting process will give us a chance to better understand how the facility is permitted and ensure that the permit is improved to assure full compliance with the Clean Air Act.”
The nonprofit has successfully sought judges’ help in the past forcing Colorado’s health department and Air Pollution Control Division to speed up issuing long-overdue permits required under the Clean Air Act.
State air pollution control officials declined to comment Friday, saying they cannot discuss ongoing litigation. Cargill, a multinational food processor based in Minnesota and the largest privately held company in the world with revenue over $150 billion, did not respond to requests for comment.
Colorado and the federal Clean Air Act require updated pollution permits every five years. Cargill’s last update was 2019, the lawsuit states. Cargill applied for an update in late 2022, and the state should have decided on it within 18 months as required by law, the suit says. That would have meant the state acting by June 30, 2024. “The state Air Pollution Control Division has yet to act on the application,” CBD claims.
The nonprofit wants the district court judge to set a hard deadline for the state to act on the Cargill permits.
In 2022, a similar nonprofit lawsuit convinced a state district judge to command a state decision on a long-stalled emissions permit renewals for the Suncor Refinery in Commerce City “without delay.”
One of Suncor’s two key permits at the time was supposed to have been reviewed and renewed by the state Department of Public Health and Environment after expiring in 2012, the other in 2018. A 17th Judicial District judge agreed with WildEarth Guardians, which brought the lawsuit, that Colorado law requires the state to act on permits within 18 months of receiving renewal applications from companies like Suncor.
State health’s backlog on air permits has fluctuated and expanded in recent years in part because of federal downgrades to Front Range counties’ attainment status for ozone limits. When Colorado moves downward, into the “severe” category, for example, the state must develop and issue air pollution permits for successively broader groups of businesses, even those with relatively small emissions. Putting permit controls on more polluters is meant to achieve eventual ozone attainment. But the additions also increase the backlog of permit applications.