POLLUTION

Tafoya, Colorado director of GreenLatinos. “It’s time to plan the just transition, including the retirement and remediation of Suncor. Our leaders have had the data. Now they have more. Will they act?” e EPA has said it will change policies and permitting to pursue environmental justice for the neighbors of frequent polluters.

Commerce City and north Denver neighborhoods surrounding Suncor have lower income, larger minority populations and higher rates of asthma and other health problems related to pollution than other Denver communities.

Suncor is the only petroleum re nery in Colorado, producing gasoline for cars and aviation fuel for Denver International Airport. e re nery released potentially dangerous sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sul de into the surrounding neighborhood in late April, the second incident that month, and state health o cials warned the emissions could exceed permitted levels throughout that day.

In March 2020, Suncor agreed to pay $9 million to settle air quality violations at Commerce City dating to 2017, including one in 2019 that blanketed adjacent neighborhoods in an ashy substance. It was the larg- est penalty Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment had ever levied from a single facility to resolve air pollution violations. e elevated discharges came as state clean water o cials are struggling to complete revisions to Suncor’s water out ow pollution permits that were rst opened to public comments more than 18 months ago. Colorado o cials noted then that they had included PFAS limits for the rst time in a draft of the revised permit. PFAS is an abbreviation for per uoroalkyl and poly uoroalkyl substances, a group of potentially harmful chemicals used as waterproo ng in thousands of goods from stain resistant carpet to rain gear to re ghting foam. e state health department’s water quality divisions have acted quickly recently to address potential pollution in runo from Suncor’s operations, Tafoya said. e air pollution division should use the study and other information to in- crease enforcement as well, he said. Various health divisions at the state should consider Suncor’s cumulative violations across all agencies. is story is from e Colorado Sun, a journalist-owned news outlet based in Denver and covering the state. For more, and to support e Colorado Sun, visit coloradosun.com. e Colorado Sun is a partner in the Colorado News Conservancy, owner of Colorado Community Media.

Water quality advocates also monitor leaks of PFAS “forever chemicals” and benzene into waters around Suncor.

Discharges of toxic “forever chemical” PFAS into Sand Creek and the South Platte River by Suncor’s Commerce City re nery spiked to thousands of times the EPA’s revised drinking water guidelines for three months starting in November, according to lings with state regulators.

“At the end of the day, we need CDPHE to take the lead,” Tafoya said.