DENVER – Federal appeals judges on Wednesday upheld a ruling that Pueblo District Attorney Bill Thiebaut doesn’t have standing to sue Colorado Springs over sewage spills into Fountain Creek, which flows through Pueblo.

Thiebaut’s lawsuit in 2005 argued that discharges of sewage between 1998 and 2007 were violating the Clean Water Act, hurting Fountain Creek and affecting Pueblo County’s economy. His lawsuit sought civil penalties. On Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with a district court that found Thiebaut couldn’t file a citizen Clean Water Act lawsuit in his official capacity.

Thiebaut said his office was reviewing the ruling before deciding what’s next.

“But regardless, it is important to take stock of what this suit has accomplished for our community. No one has ever stood up against Colorado Springs on behalf of Pueblo before this suit was filed,” Thiebaut said in an email.

“We had suffered through countless raw sewage spills and system breaches by Colorado Springs Utilities that polluted our Fountain Creek and seriously endangered the health and safety of our citizens. ... It was time to stand up and say, ‘Enough!’” Thiebaut wrote.

The Sierra Club also sued over the spills. A judge fined the utility $35,500 to settle the Sierra Club’s claims.

Colorado Springs Utilities’ pipes cross creeks dozens of times, leaving them somewhat at risk in times of rainstorms, utility spokesman Steve Berry said. He said that since 2004, before Thiebaut sued, the municipal utility has invested more than $147 million in improving its wastewater collection system, which he said is now among the best-performing systems in the state. It expects to have spent $250 million by 2018, he said.

“We believe we’ve significantly improved the system to protect the environment, our community and downstream users,” Berry said.