Symbiosis
October 27, 2022
Mutiny Information Cafe
“Shutdown Suncor” T-Shirts
All proceeds from the t-shirts pictured above go to 350 Colorado, a non-profit doing important work to hold Sunrun accountable in their negligent operations.
If you would like to purchase a t-shirt, please send $25 to:
Venmo: @bricemaiurro
Paypal: bricemaiurro@gmail.com
Please include your mailing address in your Venmo or Paypal comments. We will be taking order until the end of November and shipping in early December.
Symbiosis Contributors
Jesse Lee Pacheco | Art
Instagram: @jesselee_sent_ya
Von Disco | Music
Instagram: @vondisco
Shelsea Ochoa & Gunnar Sund | T-shirts
Instagram: @shelseaochoa
Instagram: @fungun_01
Brice Maiurro | Poetry
Instagram: @maiurro
Mutiny Information Cafe | Venue
Instagram: @mutinyinfocafe
350 Colorado | Environmental Non-Profit
Website: 350colorado.org
Suncor Watch | Facebook Group for Suncor Updates & Actions
Website
Poems by Brice Maiurro
Here are some of the poems performed at Symbiosis that you can find online.
Involution (Video)
How to Be Alive (In Stain’d Arts’ Journal, “Blood”)
The Anatomy of a 34-Year-Old Man (maiurro.co)
Sound Reverberated Off of Mountains (Twenty Bellows Online)
Fishing (In Twenty Bellows’ Anthology, “We Are the West”)
I Am Waiting for the War to End (In Tabula Rasa Review)
A Letter to the Office of Death (Video)
Facts About Suncor
- Suncor is putting dangerous and lethal chemicals into the air and water in Colorado, including 8.5 annual tons of hydrogen cyanide, the same chemical used in gas chambers during the holocaust
- In early 2020, Suncor was once again cited for violations including “exceeding emissions limits for volatile organic compounds, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen cyanide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and more…”
- Denver’s 80216 in the Elyria-Swansea neighborhood where Suncor resides in the most polluted zip code in the United States
- As of October 20, 2022, Suncor has a net worth of 42 billion dollars. It is a small impact for them to pay any fines or fees issues by the city of Denver for harmful effects on its citizens. For example, a 2016 violation warranted only a $200,000 fine
- In an October 2016 Denver Post article, reporter Bruce Finley shared the following information about Suncor:
“The Suncor oil refinery upwind of Denver that recently belched pumpkin-colored gas and dust into the sky, worrying residents and prompting highway closures, released far more sulfur dioxide than previously known — 75,600 pounds, 150 times beyond a 24-hour limit that triggers an investigation, according to a company letter obtained Friday.”
- On March 17th, 2020, Suncor suffered from an “equipment malfunction” when a “clay-like substance” exploded from a unit in the oil refinery and rained down on nearby cities and towns. Reactively, the company released a statement saying, “the unit has been put in safe mode”.
“…it’s the second largest single-source polluter in Colorado. It refines dirty tar sands from Canada for a Canadian company that does not invest in Colorado. That money goes back to Canada. The health, safety and well-being of people that live in the state of Colorado is more valuable than sending profits back to Canada.”
–Sunni Benoit, Chair of 350 Colorado’s Green New Deal Committee
- In an interview with Sunni Benoit, she also went on to explain that Sunrun regularly dumps benzene into Colorado’s Platte River. Benoit explains, “Benzene is a cancer-causing material that the WHO [World Health Organization] says there is no safe level of exposure to.”
- On April 17, 2018, the City of Boulder filed a lawsuit against Suncor, as well as Exxon Mobile.
- In 2015, Suncor provided a one-million-dollar grant towards opening the Suncor Boys & Girls Club in Commerce City (Mitchell, 2015). This is on-par with some gross form of Stockholm syndrome, where a company provides a space for kids to learn, play and grow, meanwhile poisoning the air they breathe. Commenting on the children on the area, Benoit stated “[There’s] children living in that area. The ones that have migraines, and asthma, and nosebleeds, and are getting threatened with expulsion from school because they are at the doctor’s office too much, which is very common in that north part of Denver, as well as Commerce City, and the stories are heartbreaking…”
References
Boulder County. Communities File Lawsuit Against Oil Giants for Climate Change Costs. Retrieved July 22, 2020 from https://www.bouldercounty.org/environment/sustainability/climate-change-2/climate-accountability/climate-lawsuit/
Department of Biochemistry, Penang International Dental College. (2011). Study of the effects of hydrogen cyanide exposure in Cassava workers. Indian Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine. US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health. –https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3299098/?tool=pmcentrez&report=abstract
Environmental Justice and Projects Increase Environmental Fines. H.B. 20-1143. 72nd General Assembly. (2020).
Finley, B. (2018, April 20). Suncor spews 8.5 tons of toxic gas each year. Denver Post, The (CO), p. 2A. Available from NewsBank: Access World News – Historical and Current: https://infoweb-newsbank-com.aurarialibrary.idm.oclc.org/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&docref=news/16B761934C73AEE0.
Finley, B. (2016, October 29). Refinery chemical release more than reported. Denver Post, The https://infoweb-newsbank-com.aurarialibrary.idm.oclc.org/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&docref=news/160612AF7507FD20.
Macrotrends. (2020). Suncor Energy Net Worth 2006-2020: SU. Retrieved July 15, 2020, from https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/SU/suncor-energy-/net-worth
Mitchell, M. (2016, April 21). Suncor Boys & Girls Club opens in Commerce City and serves more kids. Retrieved July 23, 2020, from https://www.denverpost.com/2015/09/01/suncor-boys-girls-club-opens-in-commerce-city-and-serves-more-kids/
Rosenberg, J. (2020, January 24). Zyklon B, a Poison Used During the Holocaust Retrieved July 08, 2020, from https://www.thoughtco.com/zyklon-b-gas-chamber-poison-1779688
Swanson; Conrad Swanson, C. (2020, March 7). Suncor to pay up to $9M to state, feds – Company’s settlement involves air pollution violations since 2017. Denver Post, The. Available from NewsBank: Access World News – Historical and Current: https://infoweb-newsbank-com.aurarialibrary.idm.oclc.org/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&docref=news/1799D0F0B79A7388.
The Denver Channel. (2017, February 17). Denver zip code is most polluted in U.S. Retrieved July 08, 2020, from https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/denver-zip-code-named-the-most-polluted-in-the-country
Woodruff, C. (2020, March 18). After School Lockouts and Flunked Inspections, Colorado Eyes Suncor Crackdown. Retrieved July 22, 2020, from https://www.westword.com/news/colorado-eyes-suncor-crackdown-11615148
Woodruff, C. (2019, December 11). Commerce City Schools Briefly Placed on Lockout After Suncor Incident. Westword. https://www.westword.com/news/commerce-city-schools-briefly-placed-on-lockdown-after-suncor-incident-11574202
maiurro 