Snowmaking on - for now
On January 11, 2006 Judge Paul G. Rosenblatt ruled in favor of snow making by the Arizona Snow Bowl. If this were the end of it then snow making would begin in a few years. Unfortunately, this is not the end and the drag on Flagstaff’s economy - absent any meaningful snowfall - will continue for the next half decade at least. The idea is that waste water, which normally has to be scrubbed cleaner than creek water, will be used to make snow on the San Fransisco Peaks. The project will take a couple of years to impliment requiring construction, tree stripping and the laying of a massive pipe running up the mountain to provide the “flushed” water. Previously this “flushed” water would end up flowing downhill as effluent, or discharge from the waste water treatment plants.
Arguments have been made about the “quality” of the snow, whether it does or will contain high levels of different substances, creating a health hazard. This argument becomes laughable when an equally compelling argument begins to be made for saving the waste water, “because we might need to make it into drinking water.” That’s right, the very same snow that will make your “skin glow” will be made from water that we might need to drink, so we can’t sell our waste water to the Snow Bowl because we might need to drink it. So if it’s safe enough to drink (assuming that we get to the point we need to) then it’s safe enough to ski over the top of. If it’s not safe enough to ski over the top of (you might grow a tail or something), then it’s not safe to drink… and throw that argument out with the bathwater - so to speak.
The other thing that has been prevalent is the argument regarding the stripping of the trees. Now I like trees as much as anyone else, but the simple truth of the matter is that we have interfered with nature for so long that these forests are unnatural and unhealthy, the density is 10 or more times what it used to be, some species are being crowded out. Due to current drought and homogenous overcrowding many of the forests are completely unhealty and prone to bark beetle infestation and devastating crown fires1.
Now, putting some water back into the ecosystem where it was taken from originally sounds like a pretty good idea to me - regardless of the economic impact that may occur due to having an attraction that draws many tourists to the Flagstaff area. Water will seep back into the water table, and it will have been locally “recycled” helping to improve the overall condition of our watertable - even to the point where we never again have to consider water restrictions.
Regular readers of this blog may have noted that I worked in a couple of different hotels over the last few years. The argument that snow(making) - and a fully operating snow ski area does not contribute to the local economy is hogwash. When the mountain is sufficiently covered, there isn’t a room to be found in Flagstaff. For that matter, Sedona, Williams, the Grey Mountain Inn, and anything else for nearly 150 miles is sold out. The city has a “Bed Board and Booze tax” of 10.118%, nearly a full 2% higher than the regular tax rate. People who are skiing are renting rooms - when they can find them - eating at our restaurants, and drinking alcohol. They are renting equipment, or merely getting their equipment tuned up at one of the many local ski shops. They are a boost to our local economy and to our local government.
The bottom line with snowmaking is that all water is “reclaimed” or “recycled”. There isn’t any more being “made”. That stuff that “falls from the sky” isn’t some magical “new” water. It fell to the ground somewhere, trickled down some mountainside or soaked into the ground, becoming part of a river or stream, maybe someone drank it, and then “flushed” it, eventually it may have found its way to the ocean only to be heated by the sun, evaporating into the sky, floated around in the atmospere for a while, then eventually fell back to earth like Icarus. And it did this millions of times. If your best argument against reclaimed water is that it is reclaimed think about the cycle. All water is recycled water.
1 - A crown fire is where the tops of trees burn, they are extremely difficult to fight as the fire jumps from treetop to treetop burning from the top down. Crown fires typically are the result of “timber ladders” where small trees catch fire and larger and larger trees begin burning until the fire is 50 or more feet in the air, where the largest trees, which normally are not affected by floor fires, begin to burn.
2 - Court Document
