An environmental group sued Colorado’s air-pollution regulators Thursday for failing to issue a timely permit to Cargill Meat Solutions, which operates a large slaughterhouse and packing facility in Fort Morgan that releases tons of harmful chemicals into the air each year.
The lawsuit, filed by the Center for Biological Diversity in Morgan County District Court, alleges the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Air Pollution Control Division is nearly 18 months late in approving Cargill’s Title V air-pollution permit.
The center is asking a judge to order the division to approve the permit within 90 days of a favorable ruling and to maintain jurisdiction until the division complies.
It is the second lawsuit the center has filed this year against the Air Pollution Control Division for delays in Title V air-pollution permit approvals.
The center argues that lagging air-permit approvals harm the environment and public health by letting companies to operate under outdated permits, which potentially allow them to pollute more than an updated permit with tighter controls would allow.
“It’s critical that industrial agriculture polluters in Colorado are held accountable for their toxic air pollution,” Jeremy Nichols, a senior advocate at the center, said in a news release. “The Polis administration needs to stop its foot-dragging, update Cargill’s air-pollution permit, and ensure the company is reining in the toxic stew it sends into our air.”
Cargill is one of the largest meat-processing facilities in Colorado, slaughtering hundreds of cows each day and butchering the meat to sell in grocery stores. The plant has boilers, wastewater treatment plants, flares, cookers and dryers, all of which release pollutants into the air, the center’s lawsuit said.
The plant annually releases tons of pollutants, such as particulate matter, soot, nitrogen oxides, hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide, ammonia and carbon monoxide. Those pollutants contribute to the Front Range’s ground-level ozone problem as well as aggravate people’s respiratory systems.
Title V air permits are required under the federal Clean Air Act for large polluters, but states review, write and approve the permits before they are sent to the Environmental Protection Agency. Federal law sets a timeline for how often those permits must be renewed and establishes deadlines for when permit applications must be approved.
Cargill’s Title V air permit was last approved in 2019, according to the lawsuit. That permit expired on Jan. 1, 2024.
But Cargill filed a renewal application on Dec. 30, 2022, and, under state law, the Air Pollution Control Division has 18 months to deny or approve the application. But June 30, 2024, came and went without action from the division, the lawsuit stated.
Efforts to reach officials at the Air Pollution Control Division were unsuccessful Thursday. The division typically does not comment on lawsuits.
The previous lawsuit, filed in September in Adams County District Court, accused the state health department of failing to approve on time the Title V air permits for Magellan Pipeline Terminals LLC’s Aurora Terminal, a petroleum products handling and storage facility, and Crestone Peak Resources Operating LLC’s Mustang Booster Station, an oil and gas compressor station.
Both were overdue by several months at the time of the lawsuit.
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