Tribes criticize Forest Service during hearing on snowmaking Mark Shaffer PRESCOTT - Attorneys for northern Arizona's tribes said Thursday that the U.S. Forest Service never seriously analyzed Native American objections to snowmaking from reclaimed wastewater at Arizona Snowbowl and preordained approval of it in June. The comments came during the first day of a hearing seeking summary judgment against Coconino National Forest and to reopen an environmental study of the effects of reclaimed wastewater on the San Francisco Peaks. U. S. District Judge Paul Rosenblatt will likely rule on the summary-judgment motion today after the hearing is concluded. If the motion is dismissed, a full hearing, which will determine the fate of snowmaking and other ski-area improvements, will be held next Wednesday. Lawsuits filed by six tribes and three conservation groups were combined into one by Rosenblatt after the Forest Service approved Snowbowl's plans. "There was no good-faith effort in dealing with the tribes," said Howard Shanker, a Valley attorney representing six of the plaintiffs. Shanker said the decision failed to take into consideration such things as water recharge in the Flagstaff area, children eating the snow while at the ski area and the desecration of a religious shrine central to many creation stories of the state's tribes. But Janice Schneider, an assistant U.S. attorney representing the Forest Service, said that if the decision went against the Snowbowl, the area would be forced to close given the recent drought in the Southwest. "It would also represent the imperatives of religious servitude over an entire community," Schneider said. Rachel Dougan, another assistant U.S. attorney, said the Forest Service's study went into painstaking detail with "pages after pages" explaining tribal perspectives about the peaks. The Forest Service's decision concluded that interest in skiing and the economic benefits to Flagstaff outweighed Native American religious concerns. If Rosenblatt sides with Snowbowl, 15 miles of pipeline will be laid from central Flagstaff to the ski area, and snowmaking is expected to be in place by the start of the 2006-07 season. But much of the attention on this day was on what effects there would be from treated wastewater, which lawyers say will have high quantities of medical and other undesirable waste. But the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality has certified the water to be used for snowmaking purposes. |