Colorado public-health officials on Monday announced a $2.2 million negotiated settlement with Suncor Energy for a litany of air-pollution violations — including emissions of toxic benzene — at Suncor’s oil refinery north of Denver.
The benzene emissions between 2008 and 2010 exceeded federal health standards by 3.34 metric tons, according to state compliance orders. When a carbon canister broke in 2008, the company failed to replace it for 710 days through December 2010, a state audit found. Suncor also apparently failed to install seals needed to contain pollution and to inspect valves as required on 248 occasions.
Under the settlement with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Suncor is shielded from liability, does not admit to violating laws and may pay only $1 million in penalties — using the remaining up to $1.2 million of the settlement obligation on projects to help affected metro communities. These projects have not been defined.
The settlement had to be arrived at because “determining the precise actions that must be taken, and the time frame within which such actions can be completed, are subject to negotiations,” said Colorado health-department spokesman Mark Salley. He added that there was no way to measure the harm resulting from Suncor’s violations.
No state health-department officials involved in the negotiations were made available for comment, and the CDPHE responded only to e-mail queries.
The fines “enable us to move forward with Suncor to resolve related noncompliance issues,” Air Pollution Control Division director Will Allison said in a statement. “They lay out a specific and detailed path back to compliance with state and federal regulations that includes the redesign and replacement of equipment and controls, training and other requirements.”
The current fine is the largest state health-department regulators have imposed against Suncor since the company bought the Commerce City oil refinery from Conoco about eight years ago. Since 2003, Suncor officials say, they’ve paid just more than $2 million in fines to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Colorado health department.
The benzene pollution comes from raw crude oil that Canada-based Suncor processes at the refinery. State regulators are treating these air-pollution problems as separate from the more recently discovered seepage of groundwater contaminated with benzene and other toxic material from Suncor’s property into Sand Creek and the South Platte River.
Suncor officials said the company takes its environmental performance seriously. They pointed out that Suncor inherited problems from the previous owners.
“We accept full responsibility for noncompliance with these regulations and have been working closely with CDPHE since 2010 to be on a path to fully comply with these regulations,” said spokeswoman Lisha Burnett.
Suncor’s violations of state and federal air-quality requirements were discovered during a state “air audit” of the facilities. A state inspector also found that Suncor failed to properly inspect and maintain equipment used in handling benzene in wastewater. In addition, Suncor was cited for failure to train employees and to fully develop standard procedures for operating equipment.