[kaneui]

A local congresswoman has added her support to snowmaking at Arizona Snowbowl, saying the USDA could pay $11M to subsidize construction costs:


Artificial snow plan gains ally
by CYNDY COLE
Arizona Daily Sun
April 17, 2010

U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Flagstaff, held a short telephone conference call with Flagstaff businesses and reporters Friday morning to announce her support for snowmaking at Arizona Snowbowl with a somewhat different source of water. "We need the jobs. It affects the sales tax and the city's revenues and what they can do as well," she said. A plan proposed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in January would use about $11 million in taxpayer money to subsidize the added cost of pumping formerly reclaimed water from far underground near Foxglenn, after it had been released from a wastewater treatment plant upstream. "The water source is pure water," Kirkpatrick said.

Previous studies by a Northern Arizona University researcher found wells in Foxglenn contained some of the same small quantities of chemical compounds found in reclaimed water at the Rio de Flag wastewater treatment facility. The tadpoles she raised in the Foxglenn well water underwent metamorphosis more quickly than a control group of tadpoles living in fresh water, suggesting the existence of synthetic hormones. Kirkpatrick said the idea of making snow with this underground water was good for both area tribes and for jobs. "I think this is a win-win," Kirkpatrick said. Leaders in the Hopi and Havasupai tribes said last month that the new water source was unacceptable, and that the idea of snowmaking on the mountains they hold sacred remained offensive. Government leaders on the Navajo Nation have not responded to questions about the proposal.

NO TRIBES ON CALL

The phone conference included a hotelier, the Flagstaff Chamber of Commerce, Arizona Snowbowl's manager and owner and a food distributor. No tribes were included. Reporters were allowed to ask two questions per person before Kirkpatrick ended the phone call. U.S. Sens. Jon Kyl and John McCain told the USDA in March that they opposed the use of taxpayer money for such a project, and they would not ask for an earmark or appropriation to fund it. Kirkpatrick's office did not directly answer a question on what sources of funding she proposed for the project, saying the USDA could find the money in its agency budget and would not need an earmark.

Snowbowl owner Eric Borowsky said this was a record year for Snowbowl at 206,000 skier visits, and other businesses on the call said they had seen increased business as a result of skiers in town. City sales tax records through February show that overall retail sales, as well as the hotel and restaurant business, are down for the second winter in a row, due largely to the recession. Other areas of the state, however, are down even further. Past bare winters when Snowbowl was open only a few days showed increases in the Flagstaff hospitality sector as Valley day-trippers and weekenders made their way north more easily on the dry interstate. Snowbowl is seeking snowmaking to make skiing more predictable each year, regardless of snowfall. Snowbowl has bought pipe to carry water to the ski area for making snow and now plans to do whatever construction it can this year, if approved by the federal government to start, and to finish the rest next year. "Literally, the day the USDA tells us we have a notice to proceed, we will be ready to start. So we hope to have a notice this season," Borowsky said.