As I reported here earlier this month, after a decade of legal battles Arizona Snowbowl recently became the first ski area in the world to make snow totally out of wastewater. It is piped directly from a sewage treatment plant in neighboring Flagstaff.
That the snow guns initially produced yellow snow prompted several citizens to file complaints with the state's environmental quality department, arguing that signs warning people not to ingest the snow were too small and that children were observed rolling around in it, among other things.
On Monday, Arizona's environmental quality department reported that it had found two potential violations of state environmental requirements at the resort.
The agency directed Arizona Snowbowl to place signs on snow guns informing the public that reclaimed wastewater is in use and should not be ingested, and to color-code pipes delivering wastewater to distinguish them from Snowbowl's potable water delivery system. The resort has 30 days to comply with the order.
The report noted that some of the snow at the resort had a yellow tinge. But the agency did not test the snow, accepting the explanation of Snowbowl's general manager, J.R. Murray, that the coloration was caused by rust in the pipes that spray the substance.
Mr. Murray said on Tuesday that the ski area had the full intention of complying with all regulations and had already added the requested signs.
But the lack of testing of the snow drew some criticism from Taylor McKinnon of the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group, who says that the state cannot assume that the treated wastewater is safe. "That snow remains in the snowpack — people are still skiing in it," he said. "In the spring it will melt and be taken up by plants, animals and soil."
Rudy Preston, one of the citizens who filed a complaint, said that he and others were in the process of appealing the decision. "We provided pictures of people with wastewater snow touching their mouths," he said. "How could they possibly find that skiing has no potential for ingestion?"
The reclaiming of water is increasingly being used as a conservation measure in regions that are short on supplies, especially the arid Southwest. But some environmentalists and others worry that reclaimed water contains chemicals like hormones, pharmaceuticals and antibiotics that are possibly harmful but not yet regulated by the federal government.
Whether such chemicals are harmful in small amounts is a matter of debate.
Mark Shaffer, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, said that the state had formed an "emerging contaminants" advisory panel to study the use of reclaimed wastewater and that its first meeting was held in December.
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