OPINION

Community around Suncor refinery is being slowly poisoned

BY PHIL DOE AND OLGA GONZALEZ, CULTIVANDO

Cultivando, a woman-led, Latinx non-profit that’s taken on the task of monitoring Suncor Refinery’s pollution over the past year, has arrived at many unsettling conclusions. The refinery, which sends up about a million tons of greenhouse gases (GHG) annually, also pumps out enough toxic pollutants to sabotage the health of nearby residents along with everyone else who catches whiffs of the soot and deadly chemicals following wind trails from the site.

GHG emissions from the refinery are roughly equal to the annual tailpipe emissions of the 200,000-plus new cars sold in the state in 2022.

The federal Inflation Reduction Act puts a new climate cost for GHGs pumped into the atmosphere at $130 per ton. Given this yardstick, Suncor pumps $130 million of climate destructive pollution into the atmosphere annually at no cost to it. Even so, Cultivando’s monitoring concentrated on the complex chemical cocktail the people in the Suncor corridor ingest every day. These residents are a traditionally underserved population, majority low-income Latinx. They are being slowly poisoned without their consent and, in too many cases, without their knowledge.

Soot in the air is their constant companion. Scientists refer to soot as particulate matter (PM2.5). These particles are so small that a human hair is 30 times greater in diameter. The particles are absorbed directly into the bloodstream and brain through the lungs. Worldwide, approximately 8 million people die annually from these particles. These 8 million deaths equate to the combined populations of Colorado and New Mexico greeting eternity each and every year.

The monitoring equipment takes one-to-10-minute readings so people in the Suncor neighborhoods can be warned when their air is unhealthy, especially for children and the health compromised. This monitoring disclosed that the federal 24-hour