After nearly ten years of legal wrangling, the Arizona Snowbowl Ski Resort was given the green light to use reclaimed wastewater to make artificial snow for the first time this winter. It is also the first ski resort in the world to do so, taking its water from treatment facilities in nearby Flagstaff, AZ. It’s definitely a novel use for wastewater and, if it proves successful, it may help combat the stigma against the use of reclaimed wastewater in other applications where human contact may occur.
Unfortunately, the first run of snow sprayed onto the slopes was yellow.
Face-planting into a pile of yellow snow made from reclaimed wastewater is an icky proposition. Joking aside, the discolored snow raises serious questions about the potential health and environmental impact of spraying wastewater effluent onto the slopes. Some studies have shown that the effluent contains traces of pharmaceuticals, hormones and other chemicals which are not regulated by current water quality laws. T