ELK POINT, S.D. - Dissatisfied with the lack of results from state air quality stations in the area where a Texas company proposes to build an oil refinery, opponents of the project will do their own.

Ed Cable, leader of the opposition group Save Union County, said this morning that the group will use the EPA-approved, grassroots bucket air collection system to collect "credible scientific" air samples from three locations around the refinery site proposed by Hyperion Refining.

The 5-gallon buckets have air-tight lids and were developed by Denny Larson of the International Environmental Justice System to document pollution, mostly in populated areas around oil refineries.

"We want to set our own baseline and be ready to test if, and when, anything ever happens," Cable said Friday morning.

On Saturday, Larson will meet with 10 to 12 volunteers at Cable's home just a few miles from the refinery site to train them in the use of the collection buckets. On Monday, volunteers will spread out to three designated sites to collect air samples over about a 30-minute period, Cable said.

He said Save Union County decided to bring in Larson, who was also in Union County last year testify against the refinery at a public hearing, because the state Department of Environment and Natural Resource has not yet posted any results from baseline air monitoring stations it installed last year in the vicinity of the proposed refinery.

Cable said additionally, the group is disappointed the state is not testing for benzene.

"Hyperion's proposed tar sands refinery will create a serious toxic air quality issues for the entire region, including downwind cities and states that could go undetected by current monitoring programs," he said.