Board listens to pros, cons on Hyperion

By Michele Linck | Posted: Thursday, April 16, 2009

ELK POINT, S.D. -- Those speaking against the oil refinery/energy center proposed for southern Union County outnumbered those in favor during the first two hours of a public comment hearing Wednesday before the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources' Board of Minerals and Environment.

Hyperion Refining, of Dallas, Texas, is applying to the DENR for a preconstruction air quality permit to build a $10 billion, 400,000-barrel-per-day oil refinery/energy center on 3,300 acres of farm land north of Elk Point.

The nine-member Board of Minerals and Environment will have the final say on whether to grant that permit, which Hyperion must have to start construction.

A number of speakers opposed to the project demanded the board require the company to produce a comprehensive environmental impact statement, something the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has previously said is not as rigorous as the state's permitting process. Other opponents verbally painted pictures of oil leaks, contaminated water and "poisons" spewed into the air by the ton.

Denny Larson, executive director of Global Community Monitor, a California-based organization that helps communities test air and pressure refineries to clean up their emissions, got a loud round of applause after telling the board that the permit application Hyperion has submitted fails to meet federal standards set forth in law. He said they would be breaking the law to grant it.

Larson also raised the specter of lawsuits over the refinery's pollution from area residents and adjoining states. He predicted the 5,000 workers living on site during construction would draw strip clubs and other undesirable businesses to the area.