Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumSurprise! AZ Ski Resort's Use Of Reprocessed Sewage Effluent Produces Yellow Artificial Snow
After a decade of legal battles, a ski resort in Northern Arizona recently became the first in the world to make artificial snow totally out of sewage effluent. On Dec. 24, Arizona Snowbowl fired up its snow guns for the first time, and to everyones surprise, the snow that blasted onto the mountain was yellow.
The discolored snow has sharpened an already fraught conflict.
Snowbowls manager, J. R. Murray, said the problem was caused by rusty residue in the new snow-making equipment that carries the wastewater from neighboring Flagstaff, where it is piped directly from the towns sewage treatment plant.
But Taylor McKinnon of the Center for Biological Diversity, a conservation group, says something seems fishy. I question whether that explanation is based on tests of the water or conjecture, he said. Somethings awry, and the onus is on the Forest Service and ADEQ to protect the public and determine the cause. (ADEQ is the acronym for the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.)
EDIT
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/11/discolored-slopes-mar-debut-of-snow-making-effort/
Buzz Clik
(38,437 posts)It's probably just oxidized iron, but Zappa's line of "watch out where those Huskies go, and don't you eat that yellow snow" is rolling through my head.
Arkansas Granny
(31,516 posts)We have been warned about this before.
NickB79
(19,243 posts)Thanks! I swiped your pissbowl. Too good to leave in one place. Excellent.
oldandhappy
(6,719 posts)Hilarious -- and serious. Testing it right out there in front of everyone will give lots of people something to think about.