COMMERCE CITY, Colo. — A new study monitoring the air near the Suncor oil refinery in Commerce City has found a contaminant you might not expect: radioactivity.

While Suncor’s repeated air pollution violations at the refinery have already resulted in multimillion-dollar settlements over the years, this emerging research suggests another health-harming substance is in the air.

“We live on a radioactive planet. The Earth essentially breathes, expelling the radioactive gas radon continuously, said Justin Nobel, one of the study’s authors. recently published study. “The new thing here is that there is actually radon flowing through the oil and natural gas production and processing system as well.”

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With several air monitoring instruments installed northeast of the refinery, the researchers monitored radon, in gaseous and particulate form, for more than a year.

“The industry knew they had radioactivity running through their system,” Nobel said, citing several research papers published by the oil and gas industry in recent years.

But this is the first time an air monitoring study has tracked that radioactivity downwind of a facility near communities.

“Radioactivity elevated from air downwind of a Colorado oil refinery” in Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association

The researchers found that “radioactive emissions were about two to three times higher in the direction of the oil refinery,” Nobel said.

Along with toxic chemicals expected from the oil and gas industry, including benzene and ethane, the study detected high levels of radon.

“The (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) and health agencies are very concerned about radon. Radon is considered the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States after smoking, responsible for approximately 21,000 lung cancer deaths annually,” Nobel said.

Those health concerns are most important to community members. That’s why this study was paid for by Cultivatinga nonprofit community organization serving Latinos in Commerce City.

“This is our community, and if something needs to change, we need to make it happen,” said Laura Martinez, Cultivando’s manager of environmental justice programs.

Martinez said the funds for the study came from the state’s enforcement action against Suncor.

Since 2011, Suncor has settled several times with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) violations of air pollution regulations. Earlier this year, Suncor agreed to pay Colorado’s the biggest penalty ever against a single facility: $2.5 million in fines and $8 million in community projects. Suncor paid the previous $9 million state settlement in 2020, also for air pollution violations. Suncor too established with EPA last year for air pollution violations – the fine was $300,000.

Martinez said as part of those regulations, Suncor had to set aside funds for “additional environmental projects.” This air monitoring study is one of those projects.

Colorado does not currently monitor for radioactivity or several other contaminants, which Cultivando wanted to know about. So they engaged Boulder AIRwhich works with governments and nonprofits to monitor air quality on the Front Range.

Dr. Detlev Helmig, who runs Boulder AIR, said his team created two distinct instruments for tracking gas and particles. This is because radon gas breaks down quickly and its byproducts are easily trapped on particles such as dust or water.

Dr. Helmig said their year-long monitoring data provided “compelling indicators” linking the measured radioactivity to the refinery. The researchers found a “close correlation” between radon and ethane, “a very volatile hydrocarbon that is very specific to natural gas emissions,” he said.

The researchers also studied the potential source of the radioactivity by tracking wind direction and measuring other contaminants such as ozone, carbon monoxide, methane and volatile organic compounds such as benzene, toluene and hydrogen sulfide.

Based on these measurements, researchers believe Suncor is the likely source. However, their study is limited in that it only measured radioactivity from one location, which may receive lower or higher amounts of radon than other communities in the area.

While this study focused only on downstream measurements, Dr. Helmig said upstream measurements for comparison would help clarify more about where the radioactivity is coming from and going to.

“There are no safe levels of radioactivity,” he said. “We would like to identify (where the radioactivity is coming from) and find ways to reduce those emissions.”

Dr. Helmig hopes this study will spark interest in further research into radioactivity from oil and gas operations and the potential effects on nearby communities.

Currently, US regulatory agencies do not require a study of the oil and gas industry’s radioactivity emissions, even though radon is considered a hazardous air pollutant and is enforceable under the Clean Air Act.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognizes that naturally occurring radioactivity below the earth’s surface can they come alongside oil and gas during operations. EPA calls these substances technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive material (TENORM). Radioactivity can occur as a solid, liquid, slurry or gas. But there is no “single, comprehensive, federal TENORM regulation,” according to the EPA.

“What we’re seeing is that accountability is not as strict or as strict as it should be,” Cultivando’s Martinez said. “The state needs to make sure that these industries, especially Suncor in this case, are really held accountable to the point where they’re motivated to change, that they’re motivated to do something to protect the community.”

Suncor is currently facing a Clean Air Act lawsuit brought by environmental groups in Colorado. Suncor did not respond to Denver7’s request for comment.

Martinez said he hopes to see the community continue to come together to hold Suncor accountable.

“Strength is in numbers and the more united we are, the stronger we become,” she said.

Learn more from Denver7 reporter Angelika Albaladejo in the video below:

Denver7 reporter Angelika Albaladejo discusses study showing ‘increased radioactivity’ near Commerce City refinery