It hardly seems possible that the city of Colorado Springs is dumping raw sewage into Fountain Creek. This is not some decaying boomtown – it’s the state’s second-largest city, a prosperous community with a gorgeous mountain backdrop.
According to state records, Colorado Springs has discharged almost 377,000 gallons of untreated sewage into the creek since May, fouling an already polluted waterway. That doesn’t begin to tell the story. Apparently the city has been polluting the creek since at least 1998, claiming that it’s trying to upgrade its sewage system but never really getting the job done.
Pueblo District Attorney Bill Thiebaut on Tuesday issued a 60-day notice of intent to sue Colorado Springs in federal court for violation of the Clean Water Act if it doesn’t stop. Pueblo is 35 miles downstream from Colorado Springs, and the Pueblo portion of the creek has become so polluted that Pueblo’s health department warned residents last week to stay out of the water.
The state health department issued an enforcement order two years ago, fining the Colorado Springs utility $121,682 and requiring the city to upgrade its facilities by 2010. Still, the problems have persisted. State health department chief Doug Benevento said the agency is investigating two recent spills in May and June and has given Colorado Springs until next Monday to respond to its inquiries. He intends to “push” Colorado Springs. “What they need to do is focus on Fountain Creek. We want to sit down with them and talk to them about how they will prioritize their future upgrades,” he said.
Springs officials claim they’re working in good faith to get the problems fixed, though one state official observed, “Colorado Springs is trying, but not hard enough.”
The city claims that a sewage spill in May involving 29,000 gallons was caused by vandalism. It blames a June spill of some 317,550 gallons on a rain-and-hail storm that damaged two sewer pipes over Sand Creek, a tributary of Fountain Creek, which in turn drains into the Arkansas River. In his notice to sue, Thiebaut cites five other instances between March 2004 and January 2005 in which nearly 13,000 gallons of sewage was spilled into the creek.
These episodes are an apparent violation of state and federal anti-pollution laws and a public health hazard. Thiebaut mentioned the possibility of filing criminal charges. We hope that won’t be necessary, but Colorado Springs has brushed off this problem for too long already and must make progress now.
