Colorado air pollution regulators made the rare move this month to extend the public comment period on a permit that would allow a pipeline company to expand its gasoline storage facility across the street from an elementary school in a neighborhood north of Denver.
The extension comes amid criticism that regulators at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and executives at Magellan Pipeline Company did not communicate with people about plans to expand gasoline storage at the Dupont Terminal at 8160 Krameria St. in unincorporated Adams County.
The expansion would increase the amount of toxins released into the air in a community that already suffers a disproportional amount of pollution compared to the rest of the state.
The public comment period on the expansion at Magellan’s Dupont Terminal has been extended by 30 days until Sept. 16. That gives members of the public an extra month to challenge the state Air Pollution Control Division’s preliminary approval for the project.
The extension comes after The Denver Post reported in July that community members were angry that they were not aware of the proposed expansion near an elementary school and in the middle of a residential neighborhood.
Along with the extended public comment period, the state also plans to organize a community meeting about the project, although a date and location for it have not been determined, said Michael Ogletree, director of the Air Pollution Control Division.
“We want to be sensitive to the people in the community,” Ogletree said. “For us, it’s important to have those communities at the table.”
Ogletree invited people who are concerned about the project to speak Thursday during the public comment period at the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission‘s monthly meeting. People can register for public comment online at tinyurl.com/46se6tvy.
The commission, however, is not involved in the approval process of the permit and the project is not on the commission’s monthly agenda.
Jeremy Nichols, senior advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity, said the extension for public comment is unusual but necessary.
“It was welcome news,” Nichols said. “They kind of did it quietly. It just kind of showed up on the website and they didn’t really announce it. It’s unusual, but seems really called for in light of the circumstances.”
Magellan wants to add five more storage tanks at its Dupont Terminal, which sit across the street from Dupont Elementary School. Twenty storage tanks already are on the property where the company stores fuel delivered to Colorado via a pipeline.
Magellan says it needs to expand its terminal so it can store reformulated gasoline — a special blend required in the Front Range from June to September to reduce ozone pollution.
On its application for the expansion, Magellan said the additional five tanks would release up to 16.5 tons per year of volatile organic compounds, which combine with nitrogen oxides on hot summer days to form a smog that blankets the region.
The tanks also would release benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene — all chemicals that cause various human health problems such as breathing difficulty, eye and nose irritation and inflammation.
The permit already has received preliminary approval from the state’s Air Pollution Control Division.
Ogletree said the application meets all of the rules and regulations required under state and federal laws. The public comment period gives environmental groups and concerned citizens a chance to point out errors or challenge instances where they believe the law has not been properly applied.
Because the permit already received preliminary approval it will be difficult to stop the project, Nichols said.
“When we see a draft permit come out, that’s a red flag that things are moving forward,” he said. “It’s really hard to turn that around.”
Still, Nichols is pouring through the technical documents to find provisions that need improving. For example, he is critical of a section that would authorize Magellan to release tons of volatile organic compounds when the company needs to clean the tanks over two days.
The Air Pollution Control Division plans to install high-tech air monitors near the elementary school to determine which pollutants are in the air and at what volume, Ogletree said. He said those plans are being formed by a community outreach team and were in the works before the community raised questions about the project.
The Magellan storage site is located in a neighborhood that is disproportionately impacted by air pollution, meaning people there represent different ethnicities and socio-economic levels that are traditionally left out of decision-making on projects that affect their quality of life. They argue they bear a higher burden of pollution for oil and gas projects for the benefit of the entire state.
In Colorado, companies that want to apply for air-pollution permits in those communities must include environmental justice summaries in their applications. Magellan’s summary reported that nearly 45% of the residents qualify as low-income, 79% are people of color, 31% are burdened by the cost of housing and 12% speak limited English, according to the company’s permit application.
In its application for the expansion, Magellan officials wrote that the company would notify the community about its plans by placing signs on the front gate at the facility.
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