Court: Pueblo DA Can't Sue Colorado Springs
DENVER (AP) -- Federal appeals judges have upheld a ruling that says Pueblo District Attorney Bill Thiebaut doesn't have standing to sue Colorado Springs over sewage spills into Fountain Creek, which flows through Pueblo.
Thiebaut says his office is reviewing the ruling Wednesday by a three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals before deciding what's next. He says his lawsuit in 2005 woke up Colorado Springs to its practices.
But Colorado Springs Utilities spokesman Steve Berry says that since 2004, before Thiebaut sued, the municipal utility has invested more than $147 million in its wastewater collection system, which he says is now among the best-performing systems in the state.
The Sierra Club also sued over the spills. A judge fined the utility $35,500 to settle the Sierra Club's claims.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
