<
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/ski-resorts-are-turning-wastewater-into-snow/>
"The Yellowstone Club, the elite resort near Big Sky that in the past has
counted Bill Gates, Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel as members, has become
the first ski area in Montana to turn wastewater into snow. And while skiing on
what was once sewage might seem odd at first blush, resort officials and local
conservation groups said it’s both safe and beneficial to the environment,
especially during dry winters like this one, which has left some ski areas in
the state shuttered.
In fact, Richard Chandler, vice president of environmental operations for the
Yellowstone Club, said recently that the new program to turn wastewater into
snow is helping the resort open more runs than it otherwise might be able to
this winter.
“Without [snowmaking], we’d be skiing on a lot less terrain,” Chandler said.
The new effort to use recycled water to increase the base layer of snow on
Eglise Mountain follows a decade of collaboration between the resort and local
environmental groups, plus a multi-year review by state regulators. It isn’t
the first time the Yellowstone Club has found a new use for wastewater: For
several years, it has been using recycled water to irrigate its golf course.
In 2011, the Gallatin River Task Force, Yellowstone Club and DEQ studied
whether wastewater could be used to make artificial snow to ski on. The idea
was that as climate change made the region’s snowpack more unpredictable, they
could serve skiers and the watershed by making snow from treated water that is
traditionally just put into rivers and other bodies of water. That winter they
successfully turned a half-million gallons of wastewater into two acres of snow
about 18 inches deep."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
