The Denver Post

State: Air emissions regulation­s not violated

Energy company alerted the public to vapor release from refinery north of Denver on Jan. 31

- By Noelle Phillips nphillips@denverpost.com

Suncor Energy’s oil refinery in Commerce City released propane vapors into the air on Jan. 31 but did not violate any emissions limits, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environmen­t said.

The release triggered an alert from the refinery’s public notificati­on system. No injuries were reported during the incident, the company’s alerts said.

Suncor identified the propane leak as a “vapor leak.” The leak was in a processing unit in Plant 1 near Brighton Boulevard, said Kate Malloy, a spokeswoma­n for the state health department’s Air Pollution Control Division.

The unit is a piece of equipment that has been shut down since a December malfunctio­n that caused Suncor to shutter its facility through the first three months of this year.

The unit still had pressurize­d gas in the system, Malloy said in an email. Suncor informed state air quality regulators that it isolated the leak and depressuri­zed that section of piping.

Loa Esquilin Garcia, a Suncor spokeswoma­n, said the leak did not set back the company’s maintenanc­e at the refinery and did not interfere with its plans to restart operations by the end of the first quarter.

“Our priority is to restart safely,” Garcia said.

Suncor first stopped operations during an extreme cold spell on Dec. 21 that tripped its hydrogen plant.

On Dec. 24, a fire erupted at the refinery, and the company decided to stop producing gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and asphalt for at least the first quarter of 2023 while it repairs equipment damaged by the cold and does other maintenanc­e.

The malfunctio­ns caused the refinery to exceed the amount of pollutants it emits into the air and water.

Since Dec. 21, the company has reported excessive emissions of hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide and benzene.

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