Colorado Springs’ years-long challenge with storm water that has carried pollutants and controversy downstream to Pueblo County has taken a new turn, with a member of Congress saying he has asked the EPA to drop a lawsuit against the state’s second-largest city.
U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn told The Denver Post this week he has spoken twice in recent months with Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt about the legal action and also sent him a letter, a decision driven in part by the arrival of the Trump administration in Washington.
The El Paso County Republican, who calls the lawsuit “punitive” and unnecessary in light of Colorado Springs’ financial commitment to address the problem, said he also hopes to meet with Pruitt and Colorado Springs officials in the coming weeks to discuss the legal action at length.
“He’s directed his staff to be looking at this closely,” Lamborn said of Pruitt. “He doesn’t know all the details because he has so much on his plate. He seemed to agree with the premise that if Colorado Springs has committed such a huge amount of money to address storm-water drainage, that going through the expense of a lawsuit and the expense of fines to do what the city has already agreed to do is just piling on.”
Storm water in Colorado Springs flows into the Fountain Creek watershed and down toward Pueblo, where it meets the Arkansas River — a vital waterway for drinking water and agriculture in southeast Colorado. Pueblo has been battling with Colorado Springs for years over water quality and concerns about flooding.
The EPA and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment sued Colorado Springs in November 2016 over alleged water quality violations stemming from its mismanagement of runoff, including silt and other debris.
Colorado Springs responded by calling the lawsuit a waste of money, noting the city has committed hundreds of millions of dollars to address the problems.
I enjoyed speaking w/ @EPAScottPruitt once again, I reiterated the importance of the EPA dropping its stormwater lawsuit against CO Springs pic.twitter.com/rve5kj1se6
— Rep. Doug Lamborn (@RepDLamborn) May 23, 2017
“The City appreciates Congressman Lamborn’s support to resolve this issue, as the continuance of the lawsuit only hampers our ability to effectively address our stormwater issues,” said Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers, in a written statement. “The suit should be expeditiously resolved. Expensive litigation and potential imposition of fines is wholly unproductive. I encourage the plaintiffs to review our stormwater plan and inform us with specificity what further work needs to be accomplished.”
Lamborn said he waited until President Donald Trump’s administration came into office before petitioning the EPA to drop the suit. He said former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, an Obama administration appointee, was “a lost cause.”
“It took the election of Donald Trump to show there would be a different approach in the EPA,” Lamborn said. “Hillary Clinton would have either kept Gina McCarthy on or brought in someone like her.”
The EPA did not comment for this story.
Lamborn said he believes the EPA is the driving force behind the lawsuit and that his next goal is to get Colorado’s health department to drop its case. CDPHE, however, said this week that it has no plans of backing down.
“CDPHE agrees with EPA that the City is in ongoing violation of its (storm-water) permit and that these violations are significant,” CDPHE executive director and chief medical officer Dr. Larry Wolk said in a statement Wednesday. “We believe these significant violations need to be corrected in order to protect the state’s water quality.”
Colorado Springs has entered an intergovernmental agreement with its downstream neighbors in Pueblo County to invest $460 million over the next two decades on storm-water management. And the city’s voters recently allowed $12 million in tax revenues to be used for infrastructure.
Pueblo County, however, joined the EPA and CDPHE lawsuit earlier this year to ensure its voice is heard.
The lawsuit alleges Colorado Springs has violated the Clean Water Act and Colorado Water Control Act by failing to comply with the conditions of its storm-water permits, seeking court-ordered mandates and damages. It says the city has failed to provide adequate resources to address its storm-water issues since at least 2009.
Bob Loevy, an emeritus political science professor at Colorado College, said it makes sense that Lamborn is getting involved because storm water is such a hot button issue in his district. Loevy said another incentive could be that the congressman is facing a “strong challenger” for his seat in state Sen. Owen Hill.
But others are less sure about the wisdom of Lamborn’s involvement.
“I’m not sure that interfering in a lawsuit that’s been filed is necessarily in the best interest in the folks living downstream of Fountain Creek,” said Jane Ard-Smith, chair of the Pikes Peak chapter of the Sierra Club. “It’s not just the EPA, but it’s also the state of Colorado that filed the lawsuit. This was not an action that was taken lightly. The EPA doesn’t go around suing willy-nilly. We’ve seen a history of storm-water violations, so I would hope that the congressman would see the value of enforcing clean water laws.”
Lamborn said anyone who thinks he isn’t acting in the interests of clean water is missing the point.
“People who say that are not looking at the agreement that Colorado Springs has reached,” Lamborn said. “Mayor Suthers and the city are committed to a $460 million program to get on top of this problem once and for all. I believe the mayor and the city — that they are good on their word. When you listen to them, it’s obvious that they are sincere — that they don’t like being in the position of being sued and being blamed for problems that should be cleaned up.”
