VOLUME 36 | ISSUE 7
WEEK OF FEBRUARY 15, 2024
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Latino environmental activist takes Colorado his work to a new position with Denver hits Suncor
with $10.5 m settlement BY MICHAEL BOOTH THE COLORADO SUN
Longtime environmental activist Victor Galván will now help shape policy for the City of Denver.
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• Vestas to lay off 200 employees
BUSINESS
Longtime environmental activist Victor Galván will now help shape policy for the City of Denver
BY JULIO SANDOVAL ROCKY MOUNTAIN PBS
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•27J Schools moves online-only Dec. 1
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LOCAL OBITUARIES LEGALS CLASSIFIED
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
LOCAL
Although the state of Colorado is known for its beautiful natural spaces, it also has one of the most polluted Zip codes in the country. The majority Latino community of Commerce City, in northeast Denver, has dealt with the fallout from factories and pollution in their backyards and Victor Galván, an activist from the area, has made it his life’s work to advocate for change. “I helped build relationships between community organizations where we align on values and can do policy work together to move the narrative and solutions for Latino community,” Galván said of his previous
work as an activist. Galván joined the Denver Mayor’s Office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resiliency in January after more than a decade advocating for Latinos in the environmental movement. Awareness of the links between people’s everyday lives and the environment, he said, is necessary in places such as Commerce City where pollution deeply affects the health of the community. “We have seen in north Denver children who have bloody noses, have to go to the doctor more often for headaches and an increase in asthma in the population,” Galván said.. Within his new role, Galván said he hopes to bring in the voices of Latinos into affecting policy change. “Unfortunately, those who are changing the laws and policies are rich, white and are not seeing the same problems that we are exposed to,” Galván said. ”Every day people are working to pass policies that tackle these issues.
JULIO SANDOVAL, ROCKY MOUNTAIN PBS
But the moment that our voices are at the table, solutions are created without us in mind. And so some of those solutions, although they’re wellmeaning and in good spirit, there’s a part missing, and sometimes there’s actually negative ramifications and outcomes for our community, even though they’re trying to do good.” But he said that Latino communities already participate in climate justice, even if they don’t see it that way, by conserving water and polluting less. Galván said that people with lower incomes also typically have a lower impact on climate and on emissions. “The one thing that I would say for Latinos on climate justice and environmental justice that is so important to our future and in this work is that we have to internalize that we are environmental activists, that we are climate change activists, Because we are at the center of this issue our voice needs to be at the table. We are the people that can come up with the solutions,” he said.
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Colorado has issued a $10.5 million penalty on the Suncor refinery in Commerce City over three years of air pollution violations, calling it the largestever action against a single facility, and also settled a suit resulting in a doubling of fenceline monitoring at the troubled fuel plant. The agreement surpasses a $9 million deal in 2020 for similar releases. Colorado director of public health Jill Hunsaker Ryan called it a “historic enforcement package” to “demonstrate our unwavering commitment to environmental protection and the health of our residents.” “We will continue to use every tool available to prevent Suncor from having future violations,” Hunsaker Ryan said. The $5 million in required plant improvements in the 2020 settlement have made a measurable difference in Suncor violations since then, and the new settlement requires $8 million more in plant changes, she said. The new $10.5 million settlement includes a $2.5 million cash fine, which will be split between environmental justice grants and the general fund. The violations lasted through June 2021. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment investigates Suncor violations on a two-year cycle, and is still probing air pollution releases from the past two and a half years, said Michael Ogletree, director of the department’s Air Pollution Control Division. SEE SETTLEMENT, P5
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