A showdown in Pierre tomorrow involving the state of South Dakota, Hyperion oil and those opposed to the proposed Hyperion refinery near Elk Point.

All are battling over a proposed air quality permit for the project.

Both Hyperion and their opponents have problems with the air permit the state wants to issue, leaving the state to defend it's research about the proposed refinery's impact on the environment.

For three months, state officials have been taking testimony in Elk Point and Pierre about an air quality permit for the proposed Hyperion refinery.
Union County voters OK'd the project in a public vote over a year ago.
Two environmental groups, "Save Union County" and "The Sierra Club" are challenging the project's proposed air permit, saying the state used air monitoring stations in Sioux Falls to predict where pollution from the refinery would end up..instead of using a closer air monitoring station in Sioux City.
Ed Cable is with "save union county". "According to the experts that we presented, all of the state's air monitoring and much of the fact finding on behalf of Hyperion and confirmed by the state were found to be inaccurate."
Hyperion Oil is also challenging the proposed permit.
In this filing with the state last October, Hyperion says it does not want to install state mandated pollution controls such as vapor collectors and vapor incinerator systems...Hyperion calls such a mandate "unprecedented", saying it would add more than 24 million to the project's cost.
The state attorney general's office is caught in the middle of both.
Tonight Assistant Attorney General Scott Swier told me they're ready to defend the state's environmental research and it's pollution control mandates during tomorrow's hearing.

We should know next month if the state will issue an air quality permit for the proposed Hyperion refinery or not.

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