A major oil and gas company wants to increase the amount of fuel it pumps into Adams County, saying the project is necessary because of a federal requirement that motorists along the northern Front Range use a special blend of gasoline during the summer because of excessive ozone pollution. But that gasoline — intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions — also would bring more toxic emissions to Adams County, which environmentalists describe as an industrial sacrifice zone because it hosts so many of the businesses that create pollution in the first place.

Now Holly Energy Partners, a subsidiary of the HF Sinclair Corporation, has taken the unusual step to request a public hearing before the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission as it seeks state approval to increase the amount of gasoline and ethanol it funnels through its terminal at 8591 E. 96th Ave. in Henderson, known locally as the Sinclair pipeline.

Typically, such public hearings are requested by environmentalists or people who live near industrial sites and who have concerns about pollution. In this case, industry observers believe Holly is trying to get in front of any opposition.

If state and federal regulators approve Holly Energy’s request, the company would increase the permitted amount of gasoline it pumps into Colorado by 82% to 13.3 million barrels per year from 7.3 million barrels, and the amount of ethanol would increase by 15% to 1.5 million barrels annually from 1.3 million barrels, Corrin Smith, a spokesperson for Holly Energy’s Dallas headquarters, wrote in an email.

Holly does not plan to add additional storage tanks at the site, although one tank would be converted to diesel storage from gasoline storage, according to a technical review document from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Air Pollution Control Division.The company has requested the change to its federal Title V air-pollution permit because of an Environmental Protection Agency requirement that drivers in metro Denver and across the northern Front Range use reformulated gasoline from June 1 to Sept. 15 to reduce ozone pollution. The company wants to bring in more of that reformulated gas to meet consumer demands, Smith said.

“We’re conscientious about the future — and about people’s real needs today. Located in an industrial area, the terminal supplies essential products to the greater Denver, Colorado, area — helping communities and businesses get to where they need to go,” Smith wrote in the email. “The increase in throughput is based on market demand for fuel.”

Cutting some emissions, increasing others

The expansion would decrease the amount of volatile organic compounds — gases that vaporize into the air and are known to cause human health problems such as cancer — to 162 tons annually, according to the permit notice filed by the Air Pollution Control Division.

That 13.2-ton decrease would be attributed to the fact that reformulated gas is less volatile and would create lower emissions at the facility, Smith said.

However, the increased amount of fuel coming into Henderson would raise nitrogen oxide emissions by 9.5 tons per year to 15.5 tons annually and carbon monoxide emissions by 23.6 tons to 38.7 tons, the permit notice said.