Save the Peaks Coalition

Photo © Charles Severide

The Save the Peaks Coalition is a group of concerned citizens, agencies, business people, religious and spiritual leaders, skiers, snowboarders, conservationists, students, teachers and taxpayers committed to the protection of the San Francisco Peaks.

The Coalition was formed February 2, 2004 when it was revealed that Coconino National Forest Supervisor Nora Rasure supports Alternative two of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, which calls for full "build-out" of the Arizona Snowbowl, including new runs and lifts, and for using 180 million gallons of "reclaimed wastewater" each year for snowmaking on the Sacred San Francisco Peaks.

Arizona Snowbowl Resort Limited Partnership (ASR) is a privately owned entity that holds a special use permit (SUP) to operate a ski area on federal land located on the San Francisco Peaks. The San Francisco Peaks are environmentally sensitive. The Peaks, including the SUP area, are also "extensively documented and widely recognized as a place of extreme cultural importance" to the tribes.

Due to, in large part, inconsistent snowfall and limited demand, the Snowbowl ski area has been experiencing financial difficulties. To help provide ASR with a "consistent/reliable operating season," the Forest Service (FS) agreed to allow ASR to expand the ski area and to introduce snowmaking using non-potable treated sewage effluent. Thousands opposed the project and challenged the adequacy of the FS review, consultation, and approval processes throughout the administrative process. After being rebuffed in the administrative process, a coalition of tribes and environmental groups filed suit challenging FS actions under, in part, NEPA, NFMA, and the NHPA. Plaintiff Tribes also asserted violations of the government's trust responsibility to the tribes, and a violation of RFRA.

1938: Ski area's original base area is established in Hart Prairie. A rope tow, powered by a car engine, pulls skiers uphill.

1952: The base lodge is destroyed in a fire. 1954: Road leading to ski area is extended to the site of the Agassiz Lodge. Agassiz Lodge is built in 1956. Two more lifts are added in 1958 and 1962, but little else is developed.

1970: Summit Properties purchases the area with plans for a base village, however, a land-use plan issued in 1971 restricts development to the existing permit area.

Snowbowl and the US Forest Service want to make more money from their ski resort by making fake snow using treated sewage effluent. This effluent is the water you go to the bathroom in. The Forest Service did an environmental impact analysis of the water before giving a green light to this project. They published their findings in an Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS). They know that this treated sewage effluent contains some pretty dangerous stuff, but they did not study what will happen when we come in contact with the wastewater snow. We have held the project up for more than five years with a court case that has reached the doors of the Supreme Court. And we will continue this fight until we prevail.

Basically, there are two general classes that use the water system to dispose of waste; Toilet Users and Industry. Toilet Users excrete all sorts of Personal Care Products and Pharmaceuticals (PPCP) and human pathogens into our waterways. While Industry creates waste of all kinds and mixes it in with our poo. It is important to note that industries such as pharmaceutical companies and hospitals are matching the Toilet Users total excretion of PPCP's and pathogens. Below you will find some handy charts of some of the things excreted into our waterways.

Click on the links below each header to make the data appear. There is no page refresh, it will appear below it's corresponding header.

• INDUSTRIAL WASTE

  POSSIBLE CONTENTS | HEALTH RISKS | DOCUMENTATION

  INDUSTRIAL WASTE: POSSIBLE CONTENTS

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  Industrial waste has been a problem for the United States since it's inception. Currently many chemicals that get into our water escape the treatment process and are bioaccumulating downstream in various plants and animals. This is similar to how DDT became such a problem for America back in the 1950's.

  • antimony
  • cyanide
  • mercury
  • chromium
  • cadmium
  • lead
  • dioxins
  • selenium
  • atrazine
  • pesticides
  • solvents
  • disinfectants
  • flame retardants
  • bug repellants
  • wood preservative
  • antifreeze

  INDUSTRIAL WASTE: HEALTH RISKS

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  The health risks associated with industrial contaminants in our water supply are widely documented and has even permeated our popular culture with movies such as "Erin Brockovich." It has been confirmed by ADEQ that there is mercury in our water at Lake Mary, so it is quite possible that it would also end up in our wastewater.

  • CANCER
  • BIRTH DEFECTS
  • BRAIN DAMAGE
  • IMMUNE SUPPRESSION
  • FERTILITY REDUCTION

  INDUSTRIAL WASTE: DOCUMENTATION

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  Industrial, commercial, and household discharges can contribute inorganic constituents to wastewater which may inhibit the effectiveness of wastewater treatment or may pass through the process without treatment or removal.
  -US Forest Service FEIS for Snowbowl

  Endocrine Disrupter Screening Project
  Dr. Propper of NAU and the USGS

• PHARMACEUTICALS & PERSONAL CARE PRODUCTS

  POSSIBLE CONTENTS | HEALTH RISKS | DOCUMENTATION

  PPCP: POSSIBLE CONTENTS

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  • oral contraceptives & other hormones
  • human and veterinary antibiotics
  • anti-seizure medication
  • antihistamines
  • caffeine
  • codeine
  • steroids
  • Fragrances
  • Triclosan from anti-bacterial products

  PPCP: HEALTH EFFECTS

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  The health effects of personal care products in our water are only now being studied. It has recently been found that the wastewater in our area has been leaking back into our Fox Glen well and the city is finding very persistent fragrances in our drinking water. These fragrances may have an effect on our endocrine system.

  • BIRTH DEFECTS
  • FEMINIZATION
  • ENDOCRINE DISRUPTION

  PPCP: DOCUMENTATION

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  The health effects of pharmaceuticals in oue water is only now being studied. It has recently been found that the wastewater in our area has had an effect on the lives of fish that get bathed in treated sewage effluent.

  “be very concerned if anyone were to drink the reclaimed water”.
  Endocrine Disrupter Screening Project
  Dr. Propper of NAU and the USGS

  “Between 50 and 90 percent of a typical drug dosage can be excreted and introduced unchanged into the environment.”
  -US Forest Service FEIS for Snowbowl

  PATHOGENS: POSSIBLE CONTENTS

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  Hundreds of people have become ill from water in the Colorado River that was traced back to a wastewater treatment plant that was putting treated sewage effluent into the river that contained a norovirus.

  MICROBIAL PATHOGENS

  • fecal coliform bacteria
  • enteric protozoan parasite
  • enteric bacteria
  • enteric viruses
  • Cryptosporidium
  Giardia

  PATHOGENS: HEALTH EFFECTS

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  Because of poor practices, a golf course in Phoenix, AZ was liable in the case of a golfer's death. A drinking water container was "accidentally" filled with treated sewage effluent. The golfer drank the water and died as a result of the stomach virus he contracted. 82 others were diagnosed with norovirus, but did not die.

  • NORWALK VIRUS
  • HEPATITIS
  • ACUTE ILLNESS
  • INFECTIOUS DISEASE
  • DEATH

  PATHOGENS: HEALTH EFFECTS

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  "Wastewater discharges are contributing enteric pathogens to ambient surface waters. It is now known that most documented outbreaks of waterborne disease in the United States are caused by protozoan and viral pathogens in waters that have met coliform standards."
  -US Forest Service FEIS for Snowbowl

SNOWBOWL EMPLOYEES WILL POTENTIALLY BE PLACED AT GREATEST RISK DUE TO PROLONGED EXPOSURE TO CONTAMINANTS IN WASTEWATER SNOW AND GREATER POTENTIAL FOR INHALLATION

The USFS and Snowbowl have hatched a dastardly plan to spread 180,000,000 gallons of treated sewage effluent on the edges of a wilderness area that contains pristine springs that provide Flagstaff with drinking water. This water is so good that Nestlé has been trying to buy it, bottle it, and sell it as natural spring water through Arrowhead water.

They would also like to upgrade their facility and trails by clearcutting trees, stripping topsoil resources, and reshaping the face of the ski area. Their snowmaking guns will be audible for miles around and will operate 24 hours a day when possible. They will also be making trails for ATV access to the mountain.