Snowbowl Wastewater Snow Shutdown
By Rocky Thompson on March 13th, 2007
Arizona Snowbowl was in court trying to get permission to use treated wastewater to make snow and clear 100 acres of forest to extend its ski season. They were denied a permit to expand the resort and snowmaking when a federal judge ruled the move would violate religious freedoms of several American Indian Tribes in the area and was “akin to using wastewater in Christian baptisms.†Wastewater’s also probably no so great for throwing snowballs or keeping your drinks cold. Maybe add a bottle of hand sanitizer to your ski jacket’s pocket.
via Snowboard Mag
I am not affliated with AZ Snowbowl, but the “wastewater” that would be used for the snowmaking on Snowbowl would be (from their website) A+ reclaimed water that is currently used across our nation to irrigate parks, golf courses and is currently injected back into our drinking water supply. The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality has approved this use but a liberal court finds that we should ignore the science and regulations, the environmental history and historic health record and instead reduce opportunities for recreation and access to the public’s land.” Using this reclaimed water would not only be beneficial to skiers at Snowbowl, but would also help alleviate the problems AZ is having with ground water since we no longer have enough snow melt to last us through our dry summers until monsoon season. Also from Snowbowl’s website: “It is beyond comprehension to me that we now live in a nation, where an Indian Tribe (White Mountain Apache) can make snow from virtually untreated sewer water, spray it on a “sacred mountain†and operate without question or environmental review. And the hypocrisy of the Hualapai Tribe building a scenic walkway at the Grand Canyon for tourism and economic development. No non-Indian permittee on public land would even consider such a project. Environmental groups would oppose any new commercial enterprise on the Grand Canyon rim but did not oppose the Hualapai. The political position of several of the Indian Tribes, with less than stellar environmental records, who are involved in this matter is nothing short of hypocritical.” The White Mountain Apaches have been using snowmaking for years to increase business at Sunrise skipark and yet they are against snowmaking at Snowbowl. Somehow, I don’t think that this decision is only based on enviromental influences.