Chris D’Angelo wrote an article for the Huffington Post that states Montana’s swanky and exclusive Yellowstone Club was granted a permit from the Montana DEQ to use more than 25 million gallons of wastewater for early season snowmaking. There are many ski resorts, including Snowbowl in Arizona, that “have also adopted waste-to-snow reuse”. D’Angelo continues with, “there is something comically dystopian about America’s wealthiest spending a fortune to ski atop each other’s sewage.”
Montana’s exclusive Yellowstone Club is a private playground for the rich and famous: world-class skiing and golfing, luxurious multimillion dollar homes nestled in the mountains, and the company of other elites.
But in the near future, the club’s “private powder” — yes, it trademarked that phrase — will be generated in part from treated wastewater. The club already uses effluent to water its 18-hole golf course, and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality has granted the resort a permit to use more than 25 million gallons of wastewater for early season snowmaking. The club’s environmental manager, Rick Chandler, said the move “will help conserve our limited water supply and protect the watershed.”
Read D’Angelo’s full article here.
