COLORADO SPRINGS — As the homeless camps have grown along Monument and Fountain creeks in recent months, so have concerns about the environmental and public health impacts of human waste.

With few nearby public rest rooms, many of the more than 120 people living in the camps appear to be relieving themselves in and along the creeks, and the consequences could be worse than the foul smell.

“I’m concerned about the possibility of an E. coli outbreak,” said Bob Holmes, executive director of the homeless advocacy group Homeward Pikes Peak.

Holmes recounted some horror stories of camp sanitation: 13 buckets of human waste found along Monument Creek; a downed tree near East Las Vegas Street serving as a commode, where the waste was 18 inches deep; underpasses where the walls are serving as toilet and toilet paper. He said police issue citations, but they are rare, because officers have to catch someone in the act.

City resident Janis Heuberger, a real estate agent, has filed a complaint with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and sent Colorado Springs City Council members and The Gazette photos of makeshift toilets and toilet paper along the creeks.

“We’re talking about fecal bacteria, we’re talking about E. coli, as well as garbage, in our water systems,” Heuberger said.

“I think the city needs to disconnect with love and enforce the laws and uphold the laws and let the agencies come up with the conclusions. But in the meantime we’re letting them use our creeks as a human waste dumping ground, and I have huge issues with that,” she said.

Read the rest of this report at Gazette.com.