A former environmental-studies professor at the University of Colorado who asked a federal court to afford her whistle-blower protection so she could sue a local wastewater district has lost her case.
Adrienne Anderson, who had served on the Metro Wastewater Reclamation District board, contended that the district discriminated against her for speaking out against the district’s plan to treat effluent from the Lowry Superfund site. Anderson said the effluent contained plutonium and other substances. She alleged that she was threatened, cut off at meetings and accused of lying.
Anderson, a political appointee to the board, was seeking employee protections so she could sue the board. An administrative board at the U.S. Department of Labor denied her those whistle-blower protections, a ruling she asked the 10th U.S. District Court of Appeals to overturn. On Sept. 2, the court declined Anderson’s request.
