Colorado

Colorado neighbors react to Suncor air quality violation:

Published

2 years ago

July 9, 2024

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.

ADAMSCOUNTY — A biker passes in front of the Suncor Refinery on the Sand Creek Regional Greenway in Commerce City on July 15, 2021.

Rachel Woolf for The Washington Post via Getty Images

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.”

Source link

Colorado

Avalanche discipline, power play falters, Central Division lead shrinks in 5-2 loss to Wild

Published

12 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

Avalanche discipline, power play falters, Central Division lead shrinks in 5-2 loss to Wild

The Colorado Avalanche had a chance Thursday night to regain some real separation between them and the Minnesota Wild.

It didn’t happen, and special teams were again an issue.

Minnesota’s Joel Eriksson Ek scored a pair of power-play goals, while the Avalanche took too many penalties and did not convert its chances with the extra man in a 5-2 loss at Ball Arena. The Wild scored on two of six power plays, both in the second period, then added a shorthanded goal into an empty net for good measure.

“We took six (penalties). Six is too many, especially against a power play like theirs,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “We had a slow start to the second and then just kind of started getting going, then took a bunch of penalties and kind of took the momentum away and swung it back in their favor again.”

Mackenzie Blackwood was excellent early in this contest and stopped 31 of 34 shots for the Avs in his first start since the Olympic break. Colorado, which went 0-for-3 on the power play, has not scored an extra-man goal in back-to-back games since Dec. 31 and Jan. 3. The Avs are 2-for-31 with the man advantage since Jan. 16, and at 15.1% are last in the NHL.

The Wild are now just five points behind the Avs in the Central Division, though Colorado has two games in hand. Filip Gustavsson made 44 saves for the visitors.

“I think we crated enough chances to win the hockey game,” Bednar said. “We give up the (second power-play goal) and that’s the difference in the hockey game for me. We had a chance (on the power play) … we score and it’s a tie game. We haven’t had an easy time capitalizing on some of our chances that we created in the last month.

“I’d like to see that turn around a little bit.”

Minnesota took advantage of three penalties on Colorado in a span of 53 seconds to take the lead with 2:23 left in the second period. Captain Gabe Landeskog was sent to the box for elbowing Eriksson Ek away from the play at 14:15 and Valeri Nichushkin was called for cross-checking at 15:04.

That gave the Wild a 5-on-3, but it went from bad to worse in a hurry for the home side. Brock Nelson won the 3-on-5 in his own end, but Brent Burns’ backhanded attempt to clear the puck out of the zone went into the stands for a delay of game.

Minnesota had a 5-on-3 for 1:56, which Colorado successfully killed off, but because Burns’ two minutes didn’t start until Landeskog’s penalty ended, there was more 5-on-4 time and Eriksson Ek scored his second of the night. The Swedish Olympian was trying to send a cross-crease pass to Kirill Kaprizov, but it hit the inside of Blackwood’s right leg and pinballed across the goal line.

Because of the extended penalty time, both Eriksson Ek and Boldy officially logged a shift of more than four minutes, leading to that goal.

“I’m not a big fan of the penalties we took, necessarily,” Landeskog said. “Obviously, mine is a penalty. Val, I felt like he was protecting himself and Burns, that’s a penalty. There’s nothing to argue about there. But yeah, that tilts the ice for sure and just gives them unnecessary momentum.

“So yeah, undisciplined and we’ve got to be better there for sure.”

Eriksson Ek put Minnesota in front at 7:48 of the second period. Cale Makar was called for slashing when his one-handed swipe while Yakov Trenin was attempting to shoot from the left wing. Trenin’s stick broke, so Makar went to the box.

Blackwood made the initial save on Matt Boldy’s shot from the high slot, but Eriksson Ek was there near the left post to clean up the rebound.

Martin Necas continued his hot run with a goal to even the score at 13:30 of the middle frame. Nathan MacKinnon picked up the puck in his own zone and carried it into the offensive end. He left a drop pass for Necas near the right point and then played fullback, driving Wild defenseman Daemon Hunt back to give Necas space and then providing a screen on a lethal wrist shot from his Czech linemate.

That was Necas’ 24th goal of the season. He added a second goal in the final minute after the Wild had built a three-goal advantage to give him 25 on the season.

It’s also three in two games since the Olympic break. Necas had three goals and eight points in five games for Czechia at the Olympics in Milan, equaling his country’s record for points at the event.

MacKinnon missed Colorado’s first game back on Wednesday because of maintenance. He actually slipped to third in the NHL scoring race as of Thursday morning, in part because Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov has now has 53 points in his past 23 games to track down MacKinnon and Edmonton’s Connor McDavid to make it a three-man race for the Art Ross Trophy.

McDavid (five times) and Kucherov (three) have combined to win the Art Ross in eight of the past nine years. MacKinnon has never won it, but has finished second each of the past two seasons.

Minnesota scored a second goal off a Colorado player to make it a 3-1 game and then added two empty-net tallies around Necas’ second goal to seal the Wild’s sixth win in a row.

Want more Avalanche news? Sign up for the Avalanche Insider to get all our NHL analysis.

Source link

Colorado

Firefighters stop spread of wildfire in Colorado’s Golden Gate Canyon

Published

24 hours ago

February 26, 2026

Press Room

Firefighters stop spread of wildfire in Colorado’s Golden Gate Canyon

Updated on: February 26, 2026 / 1:18 PM MST
/ CBS Colorado

Late Thursday morning, a house fire spreading into the nearby woods in Colorado’s Golden Gate Canyon prompted officials to issue a pre-evacuation order to nearby residents. Firefighters have since brought the blaze under control.

According to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, a house fire broke out around 11:30 a.m. in the 10600 block of Ralston Creek Road in Golden Gate Canyon, located around 25 miles west of Denver. The fire then began to spread into the nearby trees and grass.

Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office

Multiple fire units quickly responded to the scene, and the JCSO issued a pre-evacuation notice to all residents within a three-mile radius, warning them to be prepared to leave at a moment’s notice.

At 12:34 p.m., the sheriff’s office announced that the fire is no longer spreading and the burn area has been contained to less than an acre. A photo shared by JCSO shows a structure nearly completely destroyed by the fire.

Pre-evacuation orders were lifted around 1 p.m.

Source link

Colorado

Toyota Game Recap: 2/25/2026 | Colorado Avalanche

Published

2 days ago

February 26, 2026

Press Room

Toyota Game Recap: 2/25/2026 | Colorado Avalanche

ColoradoAvalanche.com is the official Web site of the Colorado Avalanche. Colorado Avalanche and ColoradoAvalanche.com are trademarks of Colorado Avalanche, LLC. NHL, the NHL Shield, the word mark and image of the Stanley Cup and NHL Conference logos are registered trademarks of the National Hockey League. All NHL logos and marks and NHL team logos and marks as well as all other proprietary materials depicted herein are the property of the NHL and the respective NHL teams and may not be reproduced without the prior written consent of NHL Enterprises, L.P. Copyright © 1999-2025 Colorado Avalanche Hockey Team, Inc. and the National Hockey League. All Rights Reserved. NHL Stadium Series name and logo are trademarks of the National Hockey League.

Source link