PFAS Discharges into Sand Creek from Suncor’s Denver Refinery Must Stop

Suncor Refinery alongside Sand Creek - Photo by Hyoung Chang, Denver Post

I have been stewing over whether to do a post on an article I saw in the Denver Post on July 27, 2023, regarding discharges of PFAS from Suncor’s refinery in the Denver area into Sand Creek which eventually makes its way to the South Platte.  For years I have been hearing local news stories of concerns from nearby communities about air emissions from the refinery and allegations of exceeding EPA and Colorado Department of Health and Environment (CDPHE) permit levels. I have wondered if Suncor has been given some slack due to its position as a major fuel supplier in the region. Whenever the refinery is offline due to maintenance, etc., fuel prices spike which impacts the wider community’s hip pocket (does anyone keep their wallet in their hip pocket anymore?). Is that allowing Suncor some leverage over CDPHE’s permitting process? According to the Denver Post article, Suncor had been operating on an air quality permit from 2006 that is supposed to be updated every 5 years. The permits for water and stormwater discharges were last updated in 2012.  Of course, having a permit does not mean Suncor adheres to it and there have been reported incidences of benzene spills into Sand Creek over the years as well as air permit exceedances.

South Platte’s PFAS Problem

Being in the water industry and seeing the great expense many water utilities and communities are facing to meet upcoming PFAS regulations, when I read about how such high levels are being discharged from Suncor into a drinking water source used by so many Coloradans it really hit a raw nerve for me. Pretty much any water treatment system taking water from the South Platte in the Denver Metro Area and East, including nearby wells, will have to implement some sort of treatment for PFAS removal. The cost for treatment is in the millions to tens of millions of dollars each, depending on system size. While the drinking water PFAS regulations are still being finalized, many water systems are already making plans to install treatment, since it can take years to get the funds and construct the required treatment equipment (typical solutions are GAC, Ion Exchange or Reverse Osmosis).

Suncor’s source of PFAS is likely firefighting foams used onsite, although I’m not familiar with refining to know if any raw materials contain PFAS also. This contaminates groundwater under the refinery and according to the Denver Post, Suncor treats this groundwater before releasing to Sand Creek, although obviously it not treated for PFAS removal yet. Admittedly, PFAS has only been identified as a concern in drinking water relatively recently (since 2016) and drinking water regulations are still being finalized. But Suncor was issued a draft permit by CDPHE in 2020 to release no more than 70 parts per trillion into Sand Creek. Note in June 2023 Suncor reported to the CDPHE a discharge level of 2,675 ppt…this is after Suncor apparently installed in interim treatment system to reduce PFAS to 70 ppt in early 2022.

The Denver Post article reported that Suncor estimated it would take 3 years and millions of dollars to build a permanent system to remove PFAS from wastewater before discharge into Sand Creek. Suncor also said PFAS removal is extremely difficult and treatment technologies are still in development. These statements really raise my hackles. First of all, established treatment technologies for PFAS are available now – Reverse Osmosis, Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) and Ion Exchange are well proven and already in use for PFAS removal by water utilities. Secondly, if the stormwater is already being collected for treatment, a lot of the hard work is already done and it would not be difficult to add GAC or ion exchange to the treatment train. Much larger treatment systems have already been installed on contaminated Californian ground water supplies in a quick response to the detection of PFAS and the interim regulations. So don’t try to say the technologies are not yet developed! Locally, there are also treatment systems installed at water utilities south of Colorado Springs where they detected PFAS in the ground water supply originating from a local military base.

While Suncor continues to discharge PFAS into Sand Creek, communities downstream are paying the price with their health and their money where the local water treatment plants must pay for treatment.

The article in the Post was written in late July, so Suncor may very well have accelerated installing treatment for PFAS removal since then, since the media is quick to report a violation but often slow to report on a resolution. If so, then I retract some of my vitriol for Suncor not taking action.

The comments and opinions in this post are my own and not those of my employer.