WEEK OF MAY 23, 2024
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Improving Pioneer Park
Environmentalists threaten suit over gas permits
VOLUME 36 | ISSUE 21
Groups urge EPA to crack down after missed deadlines
• Vestas to lay off 200 employees •27J Schools moves online-only Dec. 1
pecially (in) southern Commerce City, where there is a real lack of green space and tree cover,” Pierce said. “There is a real need to address those inequities when you’re talking about an area that has such a disproportionate burden with the polluting industry around here.” Among the residents who helped plant 16 new trees at Pioneer Park, the Commerce City-based organization Cultivando and local program Promotores Verdes with Americas for Conservation and the Arts recruited mostly Latino families in Commerce City, Aurora and Denver to help restore natural habitat.
The Colorado Air Pollution Control Division has missed its EPA deadline to rewrite permits for a Weld County oil and gas complex, and an environmental group says it will sue the federal agency for delaying its takeover of the permits. The EPA on Jan. 30 said state regulators writing permits for Bonanza Creek Energy hadn’t guaranteed that flaring operations would burn off pollutants and prevent air quality violations. The EPA order set a 90-day clock ticking for state revisions. “Colorado is effectively giving the oil and gas industry a free pass to pollute under illegal permits,” said Jeremy Nichols, a senior advocate at the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity. “We need the EPA to intervene to ensure public health and the environment comes first and put an end to Colorado’s dangerous foot-dragging.” The center notified the EPA it will file a lawsuit in the delays handling the allegedly flawed permits. The center says the EPA and state regulators have also failed to act quickly enough on other permits, including revisions to permits for the frequently fined Suncor Refinery in Commerce City. “They seem to be at a loss when it comes to fixing legally flawed permits,” Nichols said. Colorado officials acknowledged the deadline has passed, but said they are working on it. “We are evaluating EPA’s concerns detailed in the order so we can respond appropriately,” division spokesperson Leah Schleifer said.
SEE PARK, P12
SEE PERMITS, P2
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BUSINESS LOCAL
BY MICHAEL BOOTH THE COLORADO SUN
Participants of Wildlands Restoration Volunteers’ Commerce City Tree Planting event on May 11, 2024, at Pioneer Park in JACKIE RAMIREZ Commerce City.
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Wildlands Restoration Volunteers teams up with Commerce City to plant trees in Pioneer Park
BY JACKIE RAMIREZ SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
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LOCAL OBITUARIES LEGALS CLASSIFIED
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
With warmer weather approaching, one priority for many in Commerce City is keeping their city cool and their air clean. On May 11, Wildlands Restoration Volunteers organized their first Commerce City Tree Planting project to increase shade, create
wildland habitat and improve air quality. The event was originally planned on May 2 in honor of Earth Day, but it was canceled because of rainy weather. The nonprofit WRV has been working in Commerce City for approximately three years through a series of projects funded by Great Outdoors Colorado and the Environmental Protection Agency. On the day of the tree planting event, Kevin Pierce, bilingual project manager of WRV, led Commerce City residents in adding more shade to Pioneer Park, which serves as a buffer between neighborhoods and industry. “We know (tree planting) is really a high priority for this area, es-
OBITUARIES: PAGE 4 | CLASSIFIEDS: PAGE 9 | LEGAL: PAGE 11
COMMERCECITYSENTINEL.COM • A PUBLICATION OF COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
FROM EDUCATOR TO CITY COUNCILOR Councilor-at-large Charles Dukes discusses his motivations P5