The Suncor refinery in Commerce City was fined $10.5 million Monday by the State of Colorado for three years of air pollution violations. State regulatory officials claim the penalty was the largest ever against a single facility.
KUNC Programming & Operations Manager Desmond O’Boyle spoke with Michael Booth, reporter with the Colorado Sun, about the fine and what it means for a plant that has routinely violated clean air rules.
The Suncor refinery is a major oil processing plant, one of the few in the West, and the only one in Colorado. The facility refines crude oil for cars and airplanes, and according to their website, contributes $2.5 billion dollars to Colorado’s economy annually.
The refinement process creates a lot of pollutants for the surrounding areas. They’ve routinely exceeded EPA and state emissions limits on sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides. Hydrogen sulfide concentration cap violations have also been recorded. All of these compounds are toxic to people’s lungs.
“There are neighborhoods right around the Commerce City plant on all sides, and the neighborhood has been subjected to this for a long time,” Booth said. “And the state is saying that for the two years leading up through June of 2021, Suncor continued to violate those limits, and that they need some kind of fine and some corrective action in order to get them to stop doing it."
In addition to the toxic fumes Suncor is being fined for, the plant will also be required to do double monitoring of air pollution at its fenceline. meansThe settlement stems from a law passed by the state in 2021, which required additional monitoring.
“If there are neighbors worried about toxic substances coming over the fence and into their neighborhoods, the monitors will be able to tell what's going on with the air right over that fence and out into the neighborhood,” Booth said. “They are connected to the internet and to warning systems which can reverse 911 and send out messages to cell phones and say ‘There's been a release today, you might want to stay indoors, you might want to take other action that would keep you and your family safe, you and your pet safe.'”
Monday’s settlement will require Suncor to double the number of fence monitoring stations and program them to track more toxins than they do currently. Suncor has a history of fines and violations tracked by the State Department Public Health and Environment.
“It's true. We've seen this movie before with Suncor every two years, the state has been issuing some major corrective actions to major fines," Booth said. "The previous largest action in Colorado was a $9 million set of fines and settlements with Suncor from the two years before this. And the State is currently investigating the next two years from 21 to 23. So, one of the things that we talked about with state officials yesterday was what will stop us from having the same conversation two years from now?”
And that is the question of the day.The Sun's reporting shows Suncor made $1.98 billion in profits in the last three months of 2023. And so, this fine is a small amount when talking about Suncor’s bottom line.
State officials have said they are asking the legislature for more power to regulate refineries like Suncor. But it’s not clear if fines like this will direct the company to change behavior, even if it’s the largest-ever handed down by the state.
