The Suncor Vitality oil refinery in Commerce Metropolis spewed dangerous pollution into the environment Wednesday night time after excessive chilly triggered a shutdown throughout the plant’s operations.
The surplus emissions included hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide, opacity and visual emissions, mentioned Leah Schleifer, a Colorado Division of Public Well being and Surroundings spokeswoman.
The surplus emissions listed by CDPHE have been:
- Hydrogen sulfide exceedance from flares at Plant 1 Essential Plant Flare, Plant 2 Essential Plant Flare and Plant 3 Flare
- Sulfur dioxide exceedances from the Plant 1 Sulfur Plant Incinerator
- Seen emissions restrict exceedances from the Plant 1 Essential Plant Flare
- Opacity exceedance from the Plant 1 Fluidized Catalytic Cracking Unit
State officers are assessing the potential public well being dangers as Suncor offers extra info, Schleifer mentioned.
The state’s Air Air pollution Management Division, which falls below CDPHE, is reviewing air monitoring information offered by Suncor and Cultivando, a neighborhood nonprofit that serves as a watchdog over the plant’s emissions. Thus far, inspectors consider hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide ranges are under the degrees that trigger hostile well being results, she mentioned.
“We’ll proceed to evaluate accessible information and data over the approaching days to raised perceive any potential danger related to the upset,” Schleifer wrote in an e mail to JHB.
Loa Esquilin Garcia, a Suncor spokeswoman, declined to remark Thursday when requested in regards to the shutdown.
The shutdown began at 8 p.m. Wednesday when chilly climate brought on Suncor’s hydrogen plant to journey, making a cascading impact all through the refinery, Schleifer mentioned. At 3 a.m. Thursday, Suncor despatched emergency notifications by way of textual content, cellphone name and e mail to neighborhood members who’re registered to obtain such alerts.
The shutdown was ongoing as of 1 p.m. Friday, Schleifer mentioned. Some models stay offline and others are working at a minimal charge.
“Suncor is required to offer further reporting to CDPHE so long as this incident is ongoing and we’ll proceed to overview and assess these information to tell our response and supply obligatory updates to the general public. Primarily based on present information, we don’t anticipate vital updates over the weekend,” Schleifer mentioned. “As we proceed to analyze this situation, we intend to take any obligatory enforcement actions as decided by our specialists and accessible information.”
Suncor is the one oil and gasoline refinery in Colorado and processes about 98,000 barrels of oil a day. It additionally manufactures a lot of the asphalt used to pave Colorado’s roads.
However the refinery is the most important single supply of air air pollution within the state and is below intense scrutiny due to a number of air air pollution violations. In 2020, the corporate agreed to a $9 million settlement with the state for its violations, and that settlement included extra neighborhood air monitoring.
Final summer time, Suncor put in new automated shutdown programs inside two gasoline-producing crops at its Commerce Metropolis refinery to forestall a repeat of a 2019 malfunction that blasted a clay-like substance into the encompassing neighborhood.