Suncor reaches $160K settlement with Environmental Protection Agency over air violations in Commerce City
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reached a settlement Wednesday with Canadian-owned energy company Suncor over alleged violations of the Clean Air Act's fuels requirements at the company's Commerce City refineries.
Suncor will pay a $160,660 civil penalty and has agreed to implement an environmental project where it will spend at least $600,000 in electric lawn and garden equipment for Commerce City area residents, schools and local governments.
Suncor is worth about $45 billion, according to Forbes.
"This settlement demonstrates that EPA will hold refineries accountable when the fuel they produce fails to meet legal requirements," Assistant Administrator David M. Uhlmann of the EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance said in a statement. "This settlement and the supplemental environmental project that Suncor agreed to include will provide better air quality for residents affected by Suncor's misconduct."
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According to the EPA, the fuel produced by Suncor resulted in excess amounts of hazardous air pollution, through cancer-causing benzene being released into the air, a claim Suncor refutes.
"No excess benzene was introduced into the environment as a result of these issues," the company told CBS News Colorado in a statement Wednesday. "The exceedance at the East Plant affected 5% of Commerce City's gasoline production. Our West Plant, which comprises 95% of our gasoline, was well below the standard. Looking at all gasoline produced at the Commerce City Refinery in 2021, the East Plant and West Plant volumes combined were also below the standard."
In 2021, Suncor produced over 32 million gallons of gasoline at its Commerce City East refinery with an average benzene concentration of 1.77 volume percent, which was above the maximum 1.30 volume percent standard, according to the EPA. In June 2022, Suncor produced over 1 million gallons of summer gasoline at its Commerce City West refinery with a vapor standard of 7.9 pounds per square inch, which was above the 7.8 psi standard. Suncor notified the EPA about both violations, the agency said.
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"We have revised our internal processes to prevent such a violation from reoccurring in the future at the East Plant," the company said. "Separately, Suncor is completing a project to supply reformulated gasoline beginning in the summer of 2024. RFG will significantly reduce volatile organic compounds in Colorado, reducing the formation of ozone in the State."
You can read the full settlement agreement below. If you're having difficulty viewing it on your device, you can click here.