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Neighbors concerned over transparency of Suncor alerts

The state health department warned of emissions from the refinery on Saturday – Suncor's warning claimed the levels of pollutants were below acute health guidelines.

COMMERCE CITY, Colo. — For the second time in the month of April, state regulators warned the public about the release of air pollutants from Suncor’s Colorado refinery this weekend.

The state warning came Saturday afternoon, after two alerts sent to neighbors through the company’s notification system about an error with the plant’s sulfur recovery unit in Plant 1.

Neither alert warned of any excessive pollutants released. The news release from Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment warned that Suncor had exceeded state permitted limits of emissions of sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfate.

About an hour after the health department's message, Suncor released an updated message admitting the emissions.

“While refinery personnel acted immediately to minimize any releases, the incident resulted in elevated hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions, and additional refinery flaring,” the alert reads.

Unlike the state message, which warned people to limit outdoor activities, the Suncor message claimed the levels of pollutants were “below acute health guideline values routinely used by state and federal public health agencies.”

Lucy Molina lives in a neighborhood adjacent to the refinery and got the original message from the refinery just after midnight Saturday. The message, which the company told 9NEWS is a default alert sent whenever there is an incident at the refinery, told the public no immediate action is needed.

Molina knew to expect more.

“It’s anxiety … it’s like OK what happened now – is everybody okay? – the workers there,” she said. “Are we OK? What are we breathing? Am I safe in my house? Am I safe to walk my dog outside?”

Molina scrolled through a long thread of text message alerts on her phone, including several just from the month of April.

“These are the ones that were reported,” she said. “What about the ones that were not reported?”

On April 12, the state health department sent a message warning of higher-than-normal air pollution near the refinery. The release warns of sulfur dioxide, though the release said the violations didn’t exceed federal air quality standards. The refinery did not send a warning at that time.

Milo Marquez with the Latino advocacy organization CLLARO argued people in the neighborhoods around the refinery deserve more transparency from the messages.

“When they send alerts, it’s really confusing to the residents,” he said. “They don’t understand what’s really happening. They don’t understand the impacts of these alerts when they’re sent out. We need to find better ways to communicate with the community.”

A spokeswoman for Suncor told 9NEWS the “no immediate action” message is a default notice sent each time there is an incident at the refinery. 

She said the company always follows up with more information like it did this weekend, but at times that can take awhile to determine. She said the reason for the delay this weekend was it took awhile to determine the emissions through air monitoring data.

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