Next month, the parties in a long-running legal battle over a proposal to build a $10 billion oil refinery in Union County will present their final arguments in a Pierre courtroom.

The hearing is scheduled for Jan. 12, a little over four years since Dallas-based Hyperion Resources applied to build the refinery, which would process 400,000 barrels of heavy crude piped in daily from Canadian tar sands fields. It would be the first refinery built in the U.S. since 1976.

TIMELINE

Dec. 2007: Hyperion submits initial application
Sept. 2008: Hyperion and opponents file for contested case hearing in front of Board of Minerals and Environment
Aug. 2009: Board approves permit; opponents appeal decision to circuit court
June 2010: Judge Mark Barnett orders board to accept additional evidence; Hyperion requests construction extension
Sept. 2010 - Feb. 2011: Hyperion submits additional air quality information to DENR
Feb. 14: DENR recommends approving construction extension
Feb. 20: Original construction start deadline
Sept. 15: BME grants revised air permit, construction extension
Jan. 12, 2012: Hearing in Barnett’s courtroom
Aug. 20, 2012: New construction start deadline

The Sierra Club, Save Union County and Citizens Opposed to Oil Pollution have sued to vacate both the refinery's original air-quality permit, which the state Board of Minerals and Environment issued in 2009, and a revised version issued in September after two years of legal wrangling.

In September, the board also granted the company’s request for an 18-month construction extension.

Judge Mark Barnett has the option of rendering a verdict on the matters under appeal or of ordering the Board of Minerals and Environment to take more evidence, as he did in June 2010.

Ed Cable of Save Union County said the opposition will continue to argue that the permitting process has failed to follow provisions of the Clean Air Act.

“As I understand it, this will be a final decision for the circuit court,” he said, meaning any further appeals would have to be made to the South Dakota Supreme Court.

Would refinery opponents take their case to the Supreme Court?

“I don’t think we can make that flat of a statement, but certainly we think we have a strong case,” Cable said.

In an email, Hyperion spokesman Eric Williams said he wouldn’t speculate on how Barnett will rule. But he said the company is eager to get started on a project that would create thousands of jobs and bolster the local tax base.

In addition to defending the board’s decision to issue the permit, Hyperion will present evidence that the limits on carbon monoxide emissions from the refinery’s process heaters specified in the permit are not consistently achievable, Williams said.

“Under this permit, the Hyperion Energy Center will be the most environmentally sound refinery in the country,” he said.