On Thursday 6/27 at 6pm Adams County Planning Commission is holding a hearing at (4430 South Adams County Parkway Ste W2000A Brighton CO) allowing Suncor to rebuild its existing pipeline from the northern border of Adams County to the Suncor refinery in Commerce City. Suncor wants to replace their current 10-inch crude oil pipeline with 16-inch to increase capacity.
As part of the #fearlesssummer Week of Action we are ready to show up and pose some questions to the planning commission:
Isn’t a bigger pipeline a bigger risk if it leaks?
Do they really know the impact increasing capacity will have on the environment, and the health of the community?
Do they really trust Suncor when they have proven to be grossly negligent in cleaning up their existing leaks in commerce city?
Does the planning commission have any good recipes for summer iced drinks with “cancer-causing benzene?”
From May 15th 2013 “After 18 months of cleanup around Suncor’s oil refinery, contamination of the South Platte River is diminishing, but concentrations of cancer-causing benzene in the water remain six times higher than the national safety standard.” More info here.
Maybe Suncor could use the money they have set aside to expand this pipeline to clean up their existing toxic mess that keeps going on and on while they profit off of our damaged environment and polluted drinking water? And their solution of aerating the benzene out of the water just pollutes the air. They need to shut down their plant until they can guarantee not to poison us.
Just some thoughts that can be shared with the planning commission board this Thursday. See you there!
And if you can’t make it, email your comments to CLaRue@adcogov.org
Community Members & Activists Confront Suncor Energy at Oil Leak Site
Protestors demand an end to pollution in Colorado, Canada
Commerce City, Colo – Members of the Stop Suncor and Tar Sands Coalition, including the American Indian Movement of Colorado (AIM), Deep Green Resistance Colorado (DGR), United Community Action Network (UCAN), Occupy Denver, Front Range Rising Tide, 350.org, Boulder Food Rescue, and concerned citizens rallied and occupied the site of Suncor Energy’s oil leak on the shore of Sand Creek. Acting as Private Attorneys General, under the authority of the Clean Water Act, water samples were taken to be tested for contaminants. The demonstration sought to bring public attention to the fact that Suncor Energy’s continued negligence and environmental degradation is killing Colorado communities, water and wildlife, and to force the industrial polluter to confront the effects of its actions.
“Suncor has so poisoned this land, that oil is not spilling into these waters, it is bubbling up through the toxified soil from numerous burst sub-surface pipelines,” Deanna Meyer of Deep Green Resistance Colorado said. “ Benzene levels in this water—water that fish, ducks, geese, beavers, trees, grasses and many other beings depend on—are 100 times the safety standard, and what’s happening here is nothing compared to the destruction of the tar sands.”
Suncor’s role in the tar sands is contributing to a devastated climate and world, and is harming indigenous communities in Canada as well as people living in local communities in Colorado. The development of the tar sands—a form of oil deposit—in Athabasca has led to the deforestation of tens of thousands of square miles of the Boreal forest and the destruction of First Nations cultures. Suncor Energy declares itself to be the first corporation to begin the extraction of this abnormally dirty form of oil, and continues to do so today. Currently, Suncor produces more than 90,000 barrels of oil a day, much of this from tar sands oil, at its refinery in Commerce City, Colorado.
“All the oil that’s being spilled here came from Athabasca, which is a First Nation community. My people up there are suffering because of the oil we’re refining here,” said Tessa McLean of American Indian Movement of Colorado to the group of more than 150 that occupied the spill site. “We don’t want that oil here!”
While the spill was first reported on November 27th of last year, it is believed to have begun nine months earlier, when an underground pipe failed a pressure test, in February of 2011. However, Suncor’s history of negligence and degradation goes far beyond 2011 (when 3 different leaks were reported). Underground “plumes” of leaked oil dot the refinery grounds, the wounds and scars left by the refinery’s operation. In addition, the refinery has been cited with nearly 100 distinct air-quality violations.
“Suncor’s activities are beyond toxic, they are incompatible with a living world and they must be stopped. A safe a just world has no place for oil leaks, toxic air, poisoned water, or the tar sands,” said the coalition.
On December 31st, the Stop Suncor and Tar Sands Coalition organized a march and rally to protest Suncor Energy on the 16th Street Mall in downtown Denver. After having now come to the site of the leak and become more familiar with the severity of the damage being wrought by Suncor, the group reiterated the need to confront and stop ecocide, whether that of Colorado waters and wildlife, or the Boreal forest of Athabasca.
As Tessa McLean said, “only when the last tree has been cut, only when the last fish has been caught, only when the last river has dried up, will we realize we cannot eat money.”
COMMERCE CITY, Colo. — Taking to the streets to protest the clean-up of Sand Creek, some 200 people made themselves heard in Commerce City Saturday.“So I want everybody to be aware of what’s happening in our backyard,” said Scott Denver Jacket, one of the protest organizers. Roughly 200 people lined I-270 around 4:00 p.m. Saturday, slowing traffic, drawing two Commerce City police cars. They carried signs reading “Lies”, “Got Benzene” and “Suncor Killed This River”.
DENVER – This afternoon a large group of concerned citizens, including members of the American Indian Movement, Deep Green Resistance, Occupy, college students, and many others, will gather in Commerce City, Colorado, to take public action in defense of Mother Earth and the health of future generations.
Meet at 5001 National Western Drive (see directions below)
An occupation of the “hotzone” cleanup site in protest of Suncor Energy’s continued degradation of Colorado’s natural environment and its involvement in the destructive tar sands industrial project in Athabasca, Canada, and an exercise of citizens’ rights to act as Private Attorneys General to collect water samples from the Sand Creek and South Platte River.
On Saturday, March 10th, families from the local communities that are directly affected by the Commerce City Suncor refinery and several organizations including American Indian Movement of Colorado, Deep Green Resistance (DGR) Colorado, Front Range Rising Tide, 350.org, Occupy Denver and Boulder Food Rescue are coming together on March 10th for a demonstration against Suncor and the oil seep contaminating the Sand Creek and South Platte River. We are asking everyone concerned about our water, air, land and future to stand with us in solidarity against Suncor!
Over the last year, many people and various organizations have united to oppose the Athabasca tar sands and the Keystone XL Pipeline, correctly recognizing these industrial projects as ecocidal insanity. Here in Colorado, oil from the tar sands is refined by Suncor Energy. By participating in the process of facilitating genocide against the aboriginal people of Athabasca, Suncor Energy has toxified our air, land and water.
By bringing together active members of the Colorado community in coalition, we will align together to force Suncor to stop destroying and poisoning Mother Earth!
On Saturday, March 10th, we will occupy the ‘hot zone’ on the shore of Sand Creek, where benzene from Suncor’s refinery has been seeping into the water. By occupying the hot zone, we hope to bring public attention to the fact that Suncor is killing Colorado communities, water and wildlife, and to force the industrial polluter to confront the effects of its actions. It is also a time to form strong alliances with one another and begin to work in cohesion, so we can effectively move forward against Suncor’s unethical and irresponsible practices.
We will meet at 2:00pm at 5001 National Western Drive (from downtown Denver, get on I-25 North & take exit 215 onto E. 58th, then turn right onto Franklin. 5001 is ~1 mile on the right, look for signs) on Saturday March 10th. From there, we will carpool to 64th Avenue and York, where we will park and walk to the site of the action at the confluence of Sand Creek and South Platte River. Food will be provided by Boulder Food Rescue, and representatives from various groups will be speaking. Be aware that fumes from the oil and the refinery can sometimes make the area uncomfortable for people with compromised respiratory systems. If you know you’ll be late, you can come to 64th & York (from I-25 North, take Exit 215 & turn right onto E 58th, continue for 1.5 miles & turn left onto York, parking is ~1 mile further on the right at 64th & York), and walk north along the South Platte River Trail until you reach the pedestrian bridge and the crowd.
It is our hope to see as many of you as possible at this demonstration. Suncor is actively destroying Mother Earth and must be stopped. Suncor’s role in the Tar Sands is contributing to a devastated climate and is harming Indigenous peoples in Canada as well as people living in local communities in Colorado. Please join us on March 10th to stand against the injustices and degradation of our Earth.
Colorado officials fear that vast amounts of petroleum have been leaking into the South Platte River from a broken pipeline at a refinery operated by tar sands producer Suncor.
It is not yet clear how long oil has been leaking into the South Platte River, how much has been spilled or what substance was spilled. State officials are currently testing the water on the South Platte River, a major source of drinking water, wildlife habitat and agricultural water for Colorado and the Midwest. Meanwhile, levels of benzene and volatile organic compounds at the nearby Denver Metro Wastewater plant required a partial closure.
Suncor is the oldest tar sands producers, up to 90% of its production comprised of tar sands bitumen. The company uses its Colorado refinery to process some of the heavy tar sands coming from the Express and Platte pipelines. At a time when companies like TransCanada and Enbridge are proposing to build tar sands infrastructure through our rivers and water resources—and some in Congress are trying to speed up the process by skipping environmental review—this spill provides another sad example of what can go wrong with these projects.
The spill was discovered on Sunday morning by Trevor Tanner, a fisherman who saw sheen on the South Platte River and said the area smelled like a gas station. In his account:
I walked several hundred feet up Sand-Creek and there was an oil sheen the whole way and there was even a weird milky chocolaty sludge trapped in the small back-eddy below the confluence. My fly smelled like gasoline. My fingers smelled like gasoline. I could see micro-currents and upwells in the water column that you usually just can’t see. Something was terribly wrong.
The oily slick on South Platte River contains cancer-causing chemicals
When Mr. Tanner found the hotline number and called it, the spill response coordinator initially wanted him to call back in twenty minutes. On Monday officials from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) arrived onsite and Suncor reported a leak. On Tuesday evening Suncor and EPA officials decided to dig a trench. This afternoon, EPA officials announced that three small booms erected on a bank of Sannd Creek appear to be containing the oil and preventing further contamination.
The extent of the contamination is still unclear. If the leak involves tar sands diluted bitumen, the contamination could be more severe. Tar sands diluted bitumen spills are associated with significantly more submerged oil which cannot be contained by surface booms. Spill responders are still struggling to handle the submerged oil at Enbridge’s Kalamazoo oil spill. However, this spill shows the weakness in spill response and is yet another example of the very real risks inherent in tar sands infrastructure projects.
Anthony Swift is an attorney with the International Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council. This piece was originally published at NRDC’s Switchboard blog.
Southwest Earth First! 