COLORADO SPRINGS — After years of unexplained, random jumps in the level of bacteria in Fountain Creek, federal officials believe they’ve found the likely culprit: pigeons.
Researchers with the U.S. Geological Survey examined a 12-mile stretch of the creek and found high levels of E. coli below Manitou Springs.
Researchers tested to see if the E. coli came from livestock, deer, pets or human waste, which has been under suspicion for years following sewage spills in Colorado Springs and a leaky system in Manitou Springs.
USGS hydrologist David Mau said testing eliminated those possibilities leaving birds, particularly pigeons in Manitou Springs, as the likely source.
“It totally surprised us. We really expected to see something. If it wasn’t human, we expected it to be cows,” said Brian Vanden Heuvel, a Colorado State University-Pueblo biology professor who has been sampling Fountain Creek between Colorado Springs and Pueblo.
A public meeting on the results is scheduled in Colorado Springs on Wednesday. Contamination of the creek has been a point of contention between Colorado Springs and Pueblo, about 40 miles downstream.
