Since 2002, the nearby city of Flagstaff has thrown its weight behind Phoenix developer's Eric Borowsky's scheme to get richer quicker by yet again building out the local Arizona SnowBowl ski resort and adding snowmaking capacity. It's a scheme born in hell: a sacrifice of sacred lands and scarce and invaluable high elevation habitat in order to make room for new skiing amenities and ski slopes. Counterfeit snow will be made using reclaimed sewage water that contains an arsenal of industrial chemicals, endocrine disruptors, and pharmaceuticals. Snowplay reigns! All bow down!
The First Nations have fiercely opposed this desecration (http://www.savethepeaks.org). Led by the Navajo Nation, the Yavapai Apaches, the Hopi Tribe, and the White Mountain Apaches were joined by the Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Flagstaff Activist Network in an appeal of the Forest Service decision to allow the expansion of the resort and the use of reclaimed sewage water. Violations were claimed of the National Environmental Policy Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. While the District Court found against the appellants, a three judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that ruling in 2007 and found for the First Nations and environmental groups.
Ninth Circuit Judge William Fletcher wrote: "The record in this case establishes the religious importance of the Peaks to the appellant tribes who live around it. From time immemorial, they have relied on the Peaks, and the purity of the Peaks' water, as an integral part of their religious beliefs. The Forest Service and the Snowbowl now propose to put treated sewage effluent on the Peaks. To get some sense of equivalence, it may be useful to imagine the effect on Christian beliefs and practices -- and the imposition that Christians would experience -- if the government were to require that baptisms be carried out with "reclaimed water."
It was a rare victory for the First Nations, but it was to be all too fleeting.
Snowbowl and the U.S. government appealed the decision to the en banc Ninth Circuit Court. In a split decision in 2008, the Court reversed the earlier decision claiming it was too broad an interpretation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and that "the diminishment of spiritual fulfillment serious though it may be is not a 'substantial burden' on the free exercise of religion." The Roberts-Bush Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal in 2009.
To its credit, the Obama administration conducted a review of the Forest Service's decision, incurring the unbridled wrath of Arizona's Senators and local Congressional Representative who have responded with delays of administration appointments and other threats.
Early July saw the evaporation of hope that we might see some "Change you can believe in" as Agriculture Secretary Vilsack gave (July 2, 2010) the snowmaking project a thumbs up. In a move to play the role of King Solomon, Vilsack has given the city of Flagstaff and Snowbowl an option to avoid using reclaimed sewage to make snow. Instead, he proposes using Flagstaff drinking water. The cost would amount to an additional $11 million over 20 years (never mind the loss of invaluable groundwater in a desert, in a time of climate change, in a time of expanding population). American taxpayers would foot the bill for this inanity since Mr. Borowski would get federal funding by way of a grant to cover part of the pipeline to Snowbowl. "The plan was that the USDA would issue a grant to the industrial development authority to pay for part of the pipeline. We come out even," Borowsky said.
Ain't it sweet?
On Thursday November 5, 2009, President Barack Obama stood before Native American Tribal Leaders and told them "I get it. I'm on your side.'' He added "I know you've heard this song from Washington before. I know that you may be skeptical that this time will be any different"This is not something we just give lip service to,'' the president continued. "We are going to keep on working with you.''
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