Ski Lodge May Get to Turn Sewage Into Snow (on land Indian tribes consider sacred)

[The Straight Story]

Ski Lodge May Get to Turn Sewage Into Snow


SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - The 9th Circuit seems likely to let a ski resort use purified wastewater to put snow on Arizona's San Francisco Peaks, which many southwestern American Indian tribes consider sacred.

After more than a decade of fickle snowfall in the drought-ravaged peaks, the Arizona Snowbowl Resort submitted a controversial plan to make purified snow.

The Save the Peaks Coalition and various private citizens - including several Navajo medicine men - sued the U.S. Forest Service and Snowbowl Resort in 2009 when years of administrative challenges proved futile. The group claimed that a snowmaking scheme would harm the environmentally sensitive peaks, which some 13 Southwestern tribes consider sacred.

They also said that the Forest Service failed to properly study whether snow made from reclaimed water is dangerous to humans, especially children who use the peaks' popular snow-play area. Navajo medicine men allegedly bathe in snow gathered from the peaks for ritual purposes.

http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/01/09/42884.htm

[MineralMan]

1. Don't Eat the Yellow Snow, Kids!

Or the brown snow, either.

[Snake Alchemist]

2. We only allow the tribes to have their land if we can't make huge profits off of it. nt

[stuntcat]

7. +1

&feature=colike

[zipplewrath]

3. The study needs to be done.

But I spray reclaimed water on my lawn all the time, and my bushes, etc. Down in the Virgin Islands we stayed in a house that had its own water reclamaition facility, and "grey water" was used to wash clothes.

Truth be known, the most likely "risk" is that the water would be "too" pure, without any minerals at all. Dumping distilled water into rivers in large quantities can be a real problem. Da fish don't like it 'tall.

[enlightenment]

4. Reclaimed wastewater is often used for

non-potable purposes, including irrigation of agricultural crops.

That said, it is apparent from a number of articles (I used "use of reclaimed wastewater for snowmaking" as a Google search) that the safety issue has not been resolved.

An informative article on the topic, here:

http://www.forester.net/ow_0705_as.html

[TheManInTheMac]

5. All snow is reclaimed wastewater.

[qb]

6. Ewww! I don't see how that will improve business.