A year ends and a new year begins. On the last day of the year, it’s a good time to think about what the state can do to make the next year better. First up, listen to the people within a 10-mile radius of the Suncor refinery.

Here’s what Mimi Madrid of Globeville has to say: “Suncor does an amazing job of covering up their spills…” “Tomorrow’s too late. We’re at their mercy,” says Lucy Molina who lives a half mile north of the plant. After a shelter in place order, Robin Reichhardt, who’s lived near the plant for three years, says “I could taste it, taste that something was in the air.”

The Suncor refinery is 90 years old. It’s been owned by several entities. Most recently, ConocoPhillips sold the refinery to Suncor Corporation of Canada for $150 million in 2003.

Suncor’s parent company is the second largest corporation in Canada with revenues from a high of $40 billion in 2012 to this year’s $20 billion. Suncor Corporation owns a controlling interest in Syncrude, the largest tar sands operation in the world located in Alberta, Canada, with tailing ponds in the region creating toxic waste ponds covering 30 square miles. The Canadian government estimates that cleanup will cost $130 billion.

Suncor has spent about $400 million to retrofit its Denver refinery to accommodate its heavy tar sands from its mining operations in Ft. McMurray, Canada, roughly 1,200 miles north of Denver. Currently, about 20 percent of the product from Suncor refinery comes from these tar sands. That’s the trail that leads to tasting “something in the air.”

Right off the top, the people within a 10-mile radius of the plant are at a disadvantage. The state’s Air Pollution Control Division has given the refinery the right to emit about 800,000 tons of pollutants into the air annually. But Suncor misses these large amounts, as it has “self-reported” releasing 886,000 tons of heat-trapping greenhouse gases annually, along with 24 tons of sulfur dioxide, 125 tons of hydrogen sulfide, 25 tons of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), four tons of carbon monoxide, 49 tons of nitrogen oxide, and 55 tons of particulates.

According to a study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, analysis shows that people living within a five to 10-mile radius of an oil refinery have a much higher risk of disease from multiple cancer types than people living 20-30 miles from a refinery. That data suggest that people living near the Capitol, in downtown Denver, and as neighbors of many major Denver hospitals are in the range. In fact, people as far away as the University of Denver, Green Valley Ranch, Arvada and Lakewood, and Thornton and Northglenn, yet alone Commerce City and environs, are at risk. People in Centennial, Littleton, Highlands Ranch, and Broomfield can breathe a little easier.

More specifically, the 25 tons of VOCs include benzene and other compounds such as toluene. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there’s no safe level of benzene exposure. In 2012 Suncor was fined $2.2 million for benzene violations. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and state records suggest that Suncor’s releases of VOCs may be understated at roughly 70 times more than what the company self-reports.

Suncor also releases hydrogen cyanide, known as prussic acid or Zyklon A or B. Zyklon B was the notorious gas used in Auschwitz, Majdanek, and other extermination camps run by Nazi Germany. The state’s allowance for hydrogen cyanide in 2018 was 12.8 tons, but the refinery released 14.1 tons. More recently, Suncor requested an increase in its hydrogen cyanide air emissions to 19.9 tons, after spot testing revealed that 12.8-ton limit was insufficient.

Colorado U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, much of whose Congressional District 1 is located in the 10-mile Suncor radius, authored legislation in 2019 requiring EPA to set a limit for hydrogen cyanide that’s health based. The refinery recently paid a $9 million fine for its 2017 pollution violations. Of that amount, $2.6 million will go to citizens in the refinery’s surrounding areas. “It’s not only about holding the violators accountable,” says Garry Kaufman of the Colorado Air Pollution Control Division. “It’s also about repaying the community.”

Repaying the community must include something more than pollution “self-reporting” by Suncor. Only independent pollution measurements, reporting, and analysis will tell whether the plant deserves to do business in the state.