COMMERCE CITY, Colo. — Commerce City wants to know what it can do about Suncor.
The state's only oil refinery keeps breaking state pollution rules -- including disclosing releases of gases that can make it harder to breathe and a chemical that can cause cancer.
Lawyers hired by Commerce City think a 2021 report Suncor paid for may help a potential legal case against it. The report details pollution violations "caused by a historic tolerance of minor environmental exceedances during startup and shutdown."
"They weren't taking corrective action so that led to more significant events," the city's lawyer said in a presentation in January, explaining the refinery wasn't fixing small problems as it started up and shut down -- which then led to larger issues.
The report says "there is a lower level of tolerance for these exceedances at the refinery now" and it acknowledges some violations are typical for similar refineries and will likely continue.
Since Christmas, Suncor's own environmental reports said it broke state pollution rules more than 100 times during start up and shut down. The Askman Law Group, which was hired by Commerce City to look into Suncor, said it has been tracking those violations closely, especially given the warnings from the previous report.
Commerce City hasn't taken legal action against the refinery since warning it might in March 2021. In a meeting this month, city councilmembers asked when they could speak with their lawyers again about doing something.
A Suncor spokesperson told 9NEWS everyone was out of the office for Memorial Day and she'd try to get a response to us on Tuesday. In the past, the company has not commented on its environmental reports.
SUGGESTED VIDEOS: Latest from 9NEWS