Turning Sewage To Snow? Exclusive Private Ski Resort That Includes Bill Gates and Justin Timberlake As Members Using Purified Wastewater For Snowmaking

The Yellowstone Club is a private ski resort that counts Bill Gates and Justin Timberlake as members. It's filled with millionaires and billionaires who might balk at the resort's decision to use wastewater for snowmaking. 

Other resorts in the United States use wastewater to make powdery slopes. The Arizona Snowbowl, a resort north of Flagstaff uses wastewater but only after a protracted legal battle. The resort faced lawsuits from environmentalists and indigenous groups who objected to the use of purified water for snow on mountains. The indigenous groups considered the mountains sacred and felt spraying wastewater-based snow was an insult to their community. After numerous legal skirmishes, the ski area emerged victorious, paving the way for the adoption of wastewater snowmaking.

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Advocates for this innovative snowmaking technique argue that the purified water used in the process is cleaner than water sourced from lakes and rivers. Hunter Sykes, an environmental sustainability consultant, said in an interview with Outside magazine that pulling water from rivers can bring heavy metals if the stream was once used for mining purposes.

"Another extraction issue is that you’re removing sizable amounts of water

from streams in the fall, which is a key time for aquatic life," he said.

Overcoming the aversion to the idea of skiing on snow made from once-contaminated water is a crucial step for ski resorts facing lower snow levels because of climate change. Some proponents emphasize the environmental benefits, asserting that using recycled water for snowmaking is a more sustainable choice than tapping into freshwater sources. 

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Yellowstone Club, the pioneering resort in this practice, attests that this decision has facilitated increased snow production and the opening of more terrain, enhancing the overall winter experience for its exclusive clientele.

The Yellowstone Club initiated its wastewater snowmaking project in 2011, and in recent years, it received the necessary approvals from U.S. government environmental bodies to expand the initiative. Compliance with regulations necessitated the installation of warning signs urging skiers not to consume the snow — a precautionary measure to address concerns about potential health risks associated with the source of the water.

The Yellowstone Club’s ski slopes are connected to those of Big Sky, one of the largest ski areas in North America. The combined area of these two resorts surpasses, by certain measures, the expanse of Whistler Blackcomb, the largest public ski area on the continent. However, only the super-rich and their guests can ski at Yellowstone Club, preventing skiers based in Big Sky from traversing the slopes and trails that are now supported with wastewater-based snow. 

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