Snowmaking, with or without treated sewage water, has long been controversial on the federally owned slopes that 13 Southwestern tribes consider sacred.
Protesters were arrested in 2012 for trying to block installation of the pipes and blowers that spray water that crystallizes in frigid air before falling and for disrupting work at a U.S. Forest Service office in Flagstaff.
State environmental regulators ruled Tuesday that snowmaking is an allowable use for recycled water, thwarting the most recent attempt to block Arizona Snowbowl from misting Flagstaff’s treated wastewater over ski runs in the San Francisco Peaks.
An inspection report generated by a Dec. 27 visit to the ski resort also found that Snowbowl is largely in compliance with permit requirements that it warn skiers not to ingest melted snow.
Snowbowl General Manager J.R. Murray said, “We intend to comply fully with all rules and regulations,” he said, adding that the snowmaking, meant to ensure a minimum season that will always start by Christmas, is simply augmenting nature.
“We have much more natural snow than we have man-made,” Murray said.
As of Tuesday, the resort had received 46 inches of snowfall during the past three days.]
