Resort’s Snow Won’t Be Pure This Year

[questionmark]

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Klee Benally, a member of the Navajo tribe, has gone to the mountains just north of here to pray, and he has gone to get arrested. He has chained himself to excavators; he has faced down bulldozers. For 10 years, the soft-spoken activist has fought a ski resort’s expansion plans in the San Francisco Peaks that include clear-cutting 74 acres of forest and piping treated sewage effluent onto a mountain to make snow.

But he appears to be losing the battle.

In February, a federal appeals court ruled in favor of the ski resort’s upgrade plans, ending a legal saga fought by a coalition of environmental groups and 13 American Indian tribes, which consider the mountain sacred and view the wastewater snow as a desecration.

This coming ski season, the resort, Arizona Snowbowl, will become the first ski resort in the world to use 100 percent sewage effluent to make artificial snow.

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[+OverSword]

I don't ski so I say leave the trees and keep sewage off of our mountains.

[keithisco]

I just had to post this from Q's article...

City officials, like Brad Hill, Flagstaff’s utilities director, say they have been “very proactive” in ensuring that the water is safe. That is why, in addition to the federal study, the city conducted its own water tests.

It hired Catherine R. Propper, a scientist and professor at Northern Arizona University, who found that Flagstaff’s water contains endocrine-disrupting chemicals, or EDCs, including hormones, antibiotics, antidepressants, pharmaceuticals and steroids.

“We don’t know what effect freezing and thawing is going to have on the chemical compounds,” she said. “We don’t know what UV is going to do to them. Some of the compounds will bind to the soil; some will get into the aquifers. It is a very complicated system that we know very little about.”

The substances were not considered in the Forest Service’s impact assessment because federal guidelines do not require doing so, and their nonstatus is part of why Flagstaff can consider its water safe despite Dr. Propper’s findings. Even she is quick to say that “a mouthful of snow is not going to make the difference.”

So basically City officials hire an independent expert whose findings are fairly alarming..."Flagstaff’s water contains endocrine-disrupting chemicals, or EDCs, including hormones, antibiotics, antidepressants, pharmaceuticals and steroids"... what happens when these substances get into the aquifer, and they will during thaw???

[questionmark]

I just had to post this from Q's article...

City officials, like Brad Hill, Flagstaff’s utilities director, say they have been “very proactive” in ensuring that the water is safe. That is why, in addition to the federal study, the city conducted its own water tests.

It hired Catherine R. Propper, a scientist and professor at Northern Arizona University, who found that Flagstaff’s water contains endocrine-disrupting chemicals, or EDCs, including hormones, antibiotics, antidepressants, pharmaceuticals and steroids.

“We don’t know what effect freezing and thawing is going to have on the chemical compounds,” she said. “We don’t know what UV is going to do to them. Some of the compounds will bind to the soil; some will get into the aquifers. It is a very complicated system that we know very little about.”

The substances were not considered in the Forest Service’s impact assessment because federal guidelines do not require doing so, and their nonstatus is part of why Flagstaff can consider its water safe despite Dr. Propper’s findings. Even she is quick to say that “a mouthful of snow is not going to make the difference.”

So basically City officials hire an independent expert whose findings are fairly alarming..."Flagstaff’s water contains endocrine-disrupting chemicals, or EDCs, including hormones, antibiotics, antidepressants, pharmaceuticals and steroids"... what happens when these substances get into the aquifer, and they will during thaw???

Buy bottled water!

[Ashotep]

Yet more chemicals and hormones for the human population and animals to absorb. Give a medal to the brilliant mind that came up with this plan just so someone could ski.

[lightly]

and the name of the resort is "Arizona Snowbowl" .. i think the idea STINKS!

[Hasina]

Skiing is just the silliest thing.