By
Moniqua Lane
Sitting below us, our aquifer is rapidly being depleted; one native species after another goes onto the endangered list; open space is gobbled up on a daily basis and the Tucson and Phoenix valleys are cauldrons of air pollution. In the face of this, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality has some strange priorities. It has given preliminary approval to a proposal that would allow Arizona Snowbowl, a ski resort in Flagstaff, to use recycled wastewater for snowmaking. While the idea is not necessarily a bad one, the misguided reasoning behind it illustrates just why Arizona's magnificent natural environment is under constant attack from the state.
At night, when no skiers are on the slopes and the temperatures fall below freezing, water is sprayed through hoses with high-pressure nozzles, and the mist that falls onto the mountainside becomes soft, white powder. In the past, Arizona Snowbowl has used water pumped from the ground. Now the resort wants to use recycled wastewater instead.
Not out of any care for the quantity or quality of drinking water of Flagstaff residents; not out of any concern for the surrounding environment, but out of concern for profit does the resort put this proposal to the state.
The resort contributes $14 million to Flagstaff's economy during a good winter. In a dry one, it doesn't. That's the bottom line. In Arizona, the only reason to care about environmental responsibility is if it serves the purposes of increasing the profit margin.
Granted, this is the Snowbowl's proposal. It will be approved by the state because it's OK to use recycled water to recharge state and local coffers; it's not OK, as we learned in the last local election, to use recycled water to recharge aquifers.
It is more important to the state to preserve business than it is to preserve the environment. We see this constantly proved true here in Tucson with zoning codes that allow housing, golf course and big box developers to bulldoze acres and acres of pristine desert. Most often, this kind of development benefits snowbirds or California refugees, leaving Tucson natives with ugly scenery, congested roads and low-wage jobs.
But that's another rant.
On the one hand, the end justifies the means - at least the resort won't waste drinking-quality ground water. On the other hand, how can people within the Department of Environmental Quality be so incredibly stupid when it comes to the environment?
Keiran Suckling, spokesperson for the Center for Biological Diversity in Tucson sums it up perfectly in a statement made to the Associated Press, "Flagstaff does not have an endless water supply and I think using Flagstaff wastewater for wetland creation and for sustaining the aquifer is a far higher priority than additional skiing."
A wetland, artificial or natural, provides a cheap and efficient wastewater treatment system and serves as a sanctuary for wildlife. Failure to sustain aquifers leads to water shortages, water shortages in a desert with a barely sustainable population that insists on growing. The Colorado River can run dry, ask Mexico.
Apparently, Suckling thought wrong. In this state, profit is more important than preservation.
There are other issues with using recycled wastewater to precipitate snow.
Is it sanitary? Technically, Arizona Snowbowl argues, yes. The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality says the treated wastewater meets drinking standards. It is Class A discharge, the purest form. Here's the reassuring part: Chuck Graf of the Water Quality Division of ADEQ said, "Its water quality is better than the quality of water coming to Phoenix in the canals."
Oh, that makes it all better. Word to the wise: don't fall face first into the Snowbowl.
Finally, there is a problem with the ski slope being in sacred Native American mountains. Arizona Snowbowl is located in the San Francisco Peaks, considered sacred by Navajos. It seems the tribe is a bit suspicious of using wastewater, treated or not, on mountains considered to be one of the four cardinal points in their universe. A member of the tribe compared it to spraying wastewater on the square in front of the Vatican. But then, there's no skiers on the square of the Vatican either.
While creating snow from recycled wastewater seems, on the surface, sound environmental policy, it is actually nothing more than shady fiscal policy. The Arizona Snowbowl does not care about the environmental impact of its proposal. The upsetting part is that the Department of Environmental Quality does not care either.
