A heavy plume of black smoke billowed out of the Suncor refinery in Commerce City on Wednesday, smudging part of the northern Denver skyline and rattling nearby residents who said the air smelled acrid. The smoke followed a shutdown and flaring at one of the refinery’s processing units as crews worked to steady equipment. While the company moved through maintenance and restarts, officials said they were tracking air monitoring networks to see what, if anything, the plume meant for people on the ground.
Refinery Shutdown And Visible Plume
Suncor temporarily shut down Plant 2 after what it described as a possible electrical issue, and the company warned nearby neighborhoods that “increased smoke from the flare may be visible for several days as the plant undergoes maintenance that requires shutdown and restart of equipment,” according to The Denver Post. The outlet also reported that Plants 1 and 3 were already offline for planned maintenance and that the state’s Air Pollution Control Division had dispatched an inspector to the site to check…..