Court rulings in Denver and El Paso County this month rejected arguments from public utilities that water usage records for large data processing centers are confidential under the Colorado Open Records Act.
In separate decisions, judges ordered the Denver Water Board and the city of Colorado Springs to turn over records to Business Insider and its senior editor for investigations, Hannah Beckler.
“The results in both cases were absolutely clear from the outset,” said Steve Zansberg, the news organization’s attorney. “Like eight other public utilities in Colorado who freely provided the same records to Business Insider, nothing prohibited Denver Water or Colorado Springs Utilities from doing so.”