BREAKING NEWS
  
No Drinking Water for Snowbowl

Staff Report
The Navajo-Hopi Observer
02 September 2010

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. - In a vote of 5-2, the Flagstaff City Council voted against selling drinking water to Arizona Snowbowl ski resort for snowmaking.

The Flagstaff Water Commission had recently recommended that the council consider a request to sell drinking water to Snowbowl for artificial snowmaking rather than using reclaimed wastewater.

The decision to use potable water instead of treated wastewater was made in part to quell concerns from environmentalists and tribal members that use of reclaimed wastewater would contaminate the San Francisco Peaks, which a number of Native American tribes in New Mexico and Arizona deem sacred.

Today's decision is likely to delay current snowmaking efforts at Snowbowl until federal courts can rule on whether reclaimed water is safe for such use.

Mayor Sara Presler and council member Karla Brewster each supported the sale of drinking water to Snowbowl, while council members Art Babbott, Scott Overton, Al White, Celia Barotz and Coral Evans opposed the sale of drinking water.

Further details are forthcoming.

  

    


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