'Increased smoke and flaring' visible at Suncor as refinery restarts after outage
May 11, 2026
DENVER "Increased smoke and flaring" may be visible at the Suncor refinery in Commerce City as staff restart operations following a power outage, the company said Monday afternoon.A notification, which was issued at 1:05 p.m.,
reads, "No action by the public is required."A third-party electrical power issue knocked out the power at Suncor in Commerce City."There will be increased flaring while we work to restart our operations, which may include increased noise and visible smoke," the company said. "Flaring is an important safety measure and environmental control tool that keeps our facilities running safely." It said that a community air monitoring network did not detect any air levels about "above acute health reference guidelines during this event."On May 8, Suncor also warned about a similar situation, writing in an alert "Due to continuing startup activities following maintenance work, increased smoke and flaring may be visible at Commerce City operations."This is a developing story and will be updated.
...read more
read less