Colorado
Colorado neighbors react to Suncor air quality violation:
Suncor Energy has received a notice of violation from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment over their emissions.
This is far from the first time Suncor has gotten in trouble with regulatory agencies. The CDPHE has issued three “compliance advisories” against the facility since 2021, and in February of this year, they ordered the refinery to pay $10.5 million toward penalties and projects as a result of air pollution violations from July 2019 through June 2021. Suncor paid the penalties from the state’s February 2024 enforcement package by the March 6, 2024, deadline, as required.
However, the EPA says this is the first such notice they’ve issued to Suncor, and neighbors hope this time it will lead to change.
“Everybody’s like, ‘just move. Why don’t you just move?’ Why would I rip my family away from the only community they know? Why don’t they leave?” asked Lucy Molina.
The Commerce City resident has spent years speaking out against her least favorite neighbor, Suncor Energy.
“We have normalized it in our community. ‘Oh, it smells like sulfur, like rotten eggs here,’ but we don’t understand that every time we smell that, that we’re actually smelling poisons,” said Molina.
Molina believes the refinery’s emissions are to blame for community health issues, from bloody noses to eczema to cancer.
“Our families dealing with the chemo, the cancers, with the leukemia, my neighbors with the asthma. Is that why my stomach hurts today? Is that why I can’t breathe properly?” said Molina.
But this week, the EPA and CDPHE issued a notice of violation to the refinery, alleging they violated the Clean Air Act and state air quality regulations.
The notice follows an October 2023 Clean Air Act inspection at Suncor that was led by EPA and accompanied by CDPHE and incorporates CDPHE’s June 2023 compliance advisory against Suncor. The agencies allege violations of:
- The Clean Air Act’s standards for benzene waste and other hazardous air pollutants;
- Clean Air Act performance standards and Title V permitting rules;
- The Colorado Air Pollution Prevention and Control Act and Colorado Air Quality Control Commission regulations;
- Suncor’s Title V operating permits issued by CDPHE under the Clean Air Act.
“It feels to me that finally we are being heard. It’s not like we’re asking for a favor, we are asking for justice,” said Molina.
Both agencies are investigating the violations and will determine an enforcement response.
Molina hopes it will be stronger than past regulatory actions.
“I think this government, along with this entity, owe this community way more than a slap on the wrist,” said Molina.
Ian Coghill, senior attorney with Earthjustice’s Rocky Mountain Office, said, “EPA’s inspection and violation notice is a big step in the right direction, but it is just a first step. There is still a long road toward holding Suncor accountable for its many violations.”
Last month, the environmental advocacy group announced its intent to sue Suncor over repeated Clean Air Act violations on behalf of community members like Molina.
“That was to hold them accountable. At the end of the day, it really is to start leading to more actions like this,” said Molina.
She hopes the notice is the first step towards a brighter future for her community.
“This is just the beginning, so we need more of this. Our past has been a stinky past all these years. We need to start healing. We need to start cleaning up. We need to start holding these entities accountable at the end of the day,” said Molina.
Despite numerous attempts to get comment from Suncor Monday and Tuesday, all the agency shared was that they “have received the notice and are in the process of reviewing it.”
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) – A Southern Colorado landscape photographer started a wildflower database for El Paso County.
Jason Fazio recently launched the El Paso County Wildflower Project.
It’s a community-built field guide designed to encourage people to get outside, explore local open spaces and trails and help document the wildflowers found throughout our county.
“A lot of what people post is stuff that I haven’t seen yet,” Flavio continued. “So it’s been really great to see people submit things.”
The project combines photography, local exploration and community participation.
Visitors can browse featured wildflowers and submit their own photographs for possible inclusion with photographer credit.
Fazio hopes the website becomes a growing resource that celebrates both Colorado’s natural beauty and the people who enjoy it.
Watch the full interview with Fazio at the top of this page!
Copyright 2026 KKTV. All rights reserved.
Colorado
Colorado neighbors lament likely closure of Roxborough library; $22 million regional library breaks ground nearby
For 22 years, the Roxborough library in Roxborough Village has served the entire Roxborough Park community. But that chapter might be coming to a close, as Douglas County Libraries prepares to break ground on a near-$22 million library in a growing master-planned Colorado community nearby.
A new regional library will be built near the intersection of West Titan Road and Taylor River Circle across from the incoming Douglas County School District elementary school in Sterling Ranch. It will also serve communities such as Louviers, Chatfield, Solstice and the greater Roxborough Park community.
“It’s an opportunity for this whole development to centralize a little bit,” said Alex Taylor, president for Sterling Ranch Community Board District No. 2
Taylor was among the first 100 residents to live in Sterling Ranch, and he can’t wait to take his two sons to the library when it opens near their home.
“Having an additional space for the kids to go and find the new set of books,” Taylor said. “Creating a centralized space for everybody in all of the various communities in this region to be able to congregate.”
The 18,000-square-foot library will break ground in Sterling Ranch this summer. But this developing situation does not satisfy everyone in the community.
“Don’t take ours to give them theirs,” community member Denise Martinez said.
Seven minutes away at the Roxborough library, some neighbors don’t want to say goodbye to their longstanding community hub. But the library board has set the lease to terminate next year.
“It would be devastating to this community on so many different levels,” Martinez said.
Martinez says the smaller Roxborough library is one of the only shared amenities in the community and is walkable for many.
“I truly believe that this is the hub of the community,” Martinez said. “This is the gathering spot.”
“Our community has been here for over 40 years, and people have paid into the library system for that amount of time,” said Ephram Glass, president of Roxborough Village Metropolitan District. They’ve been paying their property taxes. The library has been accumulating all this funding, so that they could build a new facility for Roxborough, and now for that money to then go to a brand new community that hasn’t been paying in for decades, I think a lot of people will be very pissed off.”
Glass and Martinez both enjoy taking their children to the library. They say it’s a close walk or bike ride from Roxborough Primary and Intermediate School and worry about children losing accessibility to the library.
“It would take an hour and 16 minutes walking to the new facility from this one, or a 25-minute bike ride. There’s really no shoulder,” Martinez said. “This doesn’t give our kids access at all. I mean, they will ultimately not be able to go to the library unless they have a ride.”
“I imagine some kids will take the e-bikes over. Many will just not go,” Glass said.
Glass is a member of the Roxborough Village HOA, which he says offered to donate a parcel of land near the existing Roxborough library with no strings attached.
“The board chose the Sterling Ranch site as the best site,” said Bob Pasicznyuk, executive director at Douglas County Libraries.
Pasicznyuk says there have long been plans to open a larger library in the area. He says DCL chose the other site, which was donated by the Sterling Ranch developer, partially because it was centrally located in northwest Douglas County.
“Ultimately around 35,000 people will live just in Sterling Ranch alone. The audience base would then go up to say (50,000) or 60,000. Right now it’s about half that many,” Pasicznyuk said.
Pasicznyuk says the all-in cost of the library in Sterling Ranch will be $21.6 million. That includes $250,000 for an outdoor porch, $200,000 for an outdoor children’s play area and $450,000 for other outdoor improvements, including a seating area, trellis and event and trail space.
Martinez is upset those outdoor amenities will come at the cost of the library and not the Sterling Ranch developer.
“I just think that it’s ridiculous to build a park and a veranda and even insist upon those things,” Martinez said. “I just do not understand what that really has to do with literacy or books or the library. I was kind of shocked by that actually.”
Despite terminating the lease, Pasicznyuk says the library board has not voted to close the Roxborough library just yet, but admits they have always consolidated smaller libraries when larger ones open.
“We’ve been 22 years in the second-floor strip mall rental, and while we’ve been glad for the opportunity, it’s going to be an amazing opportunity to move into a freestanding library with all the amenities that we have,” Pasicznyuk said.
“It isn’t good for this community. If you’re here to serve the community, why would you shut this down?” Martinez said.
Martinez started a Change.org petition to “Save Our Roxborough Library.” She now has more than 1,400 signatures.
“We need this. This is vital for our community,” Martinez said. “We just feel like we’re being absorbed.”
“It’s a prized amenity, so it makes sense that they want to keep it,” Pasicznyuk said. “I’ve never seen a reaction other than people love their library. So, even though you’re opening a new library, and I can describe 10 things about it that might be improvements over what we have today, people are going to, because they love their library, wish to keep what they have.”
Meanwhile, Taylor is excited for the library to open in Sterling Ranch next year.
“I’m absolutely empathetic to the fact that somebody might be disappointed that a library would move a few miles away from them versus where it’s historically been,” Taylor said. “The library will be something that everyone can enjoy. It’s going to be a library in Sterling Ranch, but not just for Sterling Ranch.”
Taylor says he’s been working with Sterling Ranch’s developers and the library on a partnership with the nearby Lamb Spring Archaeological Preserve. They are hoping to bring some artifacts or replicas into the library and use a mammoth hunter-gatherer theme for the children’s areas.
“It is a major archeological site in this region that there is evidence of mammoth activity and human activity going back possibly as far as 9,000 years ago,” Taylor said.
Roxborough-area residents say they plan to attend the next library board meeting on June 24 to make their voices heard.
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