Tribes Lose Bid to Freeze Ski Lodge's Snowmaking

A federal judge refused to halt a plan that would create snow using purified wastewater for Arizona's San Francisco Peaks, which many southwestern American Indians tribes consider sacred.  A coalition of environmentalists and American Indians that challenged the project had failed to show that further action will cause irreparable harm, U.S. District Judge Mary Murguia ruled on Feb. 18. She pointed out that it will be at least a year until the Arizona Snowbowl Resort, which manages a ski lodge on the peaks that has suffered through more than a decade of fickle snow fall in the drought-ravaged region, begins the snowmaking process. The appeal is currently pending in the 9th Circuit. The Save the Peaks Coalition and various private citizens - including several Navajo medicine men - sued the U.S. Forest Service and Snowbowl Resort in 2009 after years of failed administrative challenges to the controversial plan. The plaintiffs argue that the snowmaking scheme will harm the environmentally sensitive peaks, which some 13 Southwestern tribes consider sacred. They also argue that the Forest Service failed to properly study whether snow made from reclaimed water is dangerous to humans, especially children who use the peaks' popular snow-play area. For ritual purposes, Navajo medicine men often bathe in snow gathered from the peaks, according to the group's original complaint. Late last year the District Court granted summary judgment to the defendants, finding that the Forest Service had properly studied the potential health effects of snow made from wastewater...more