The Spanish Peaks Mountain Club has requested a permit from the Montana DEQ.

By Justin Franz MONTANA FREE PRESS

The Spanish Peaks Mountain Club in Big Sky has asked for a permit from the Montana Department of Environmental Quality to let it turn wastewater into snow for skiing and snowboarding. The private club is the second Montana ski area to try and implement snowmaking technology that proponents say is good for the environment and skiers amid a warming climate. 

More than a dozen ski areas in eight states, plus some in Canada, Switzerland and Australia, use wastewater to make powder. This past winter, the Yellowstone Club near Big Sky became the first in Montana to turn what was once sewage into snow. The Spanish Peaks Mountain Club and Yellowstone Club share a common parent company, CrossHarbor Capital Partners, but they operate as separate businesses. The Spanish Peaks terrain is operated by Big Sky Resort and accessible to the public. 

If approved, Spanish Peaks Mountain Club would use the treated water to make snow on approximately 44.5 acres of groomed runs on Spirit Mountain and the Spanish Creek base area and about 40.7 acres in the Southern Comfort ski area. The ski area would mostly use the treated snow in November and December to build a base during the early season. 

The project would be built out in two phases. During phase one, the ski area would use 23 million gallons of treated water per year to make about 18 to 24 inches of snow. During phase two, that would increase to 44 million gallons of water annually. 

DEQ has prepared a draft environmental assessment and is accepting comments on the plan through June 6. 

In an emailed statement to Montana Free Press, Spanish Peaks’ Vice President of Environmental Operations Richard Chandler wrote, “We are very excited about this effort and appreciate the Department of Environmental Quality’s careful review. The conservation community in Montana has embraced the concept of turning reclaimed water into base layer snow to reuse our precious resources, recharge the aquifer and extend cold water flow into our rivers in the late summer months. Projects like these will help add resiliency to the Gallatin River, especially during drought years.”

Chandler, who also oversees the Yellowstone Club’s environmental operations, has previously said that turning recycled water into snow is better for the environment than just releasing it into a river, which normally is what happens. By shooting it through the snowmaking equipment (it’s essentially misted onto the slopes as snow) the wastewater is treated again. Then, as it melts in the spring and enters the ground, it’s filtered a third time. Because of that, groups like the Gallatin River Task Force, Trout Unlimited, American Rivers, Great Yellowstone Coalition and the Association of Gallatin Agricultural Irrigators all supported the Yellowstone Club project.

The effort to turn wastewater into snow in Big Sky dates back more than a decade. In 2011, the Gallatin River Task Force, Yellowstone Club and DEQ teamed up to study the concept. The idea was that as climate change made the region’s snowpack more unpredictable, they could serve skiers and the watershed by making snow from treated water that is traditionally just put into rivers and other bodies of water. That winter they successfully turned a half-million gallons of wastewater into two acres of snow about 18 inches deep. 

In 2020, the Yellowstone Club applied for a permit from DEQ to expand that pilot program into a permanent snowmaking operation on Eglise Mountain. The following year, the state issued a permit allowing the Yellowstone Club to turn 25 million gallons of wastewater into snow annually. Two years and $12 million later, the new system began making snow last November. 

Under the current plan, 80% of the recycled water comes from the Big Sky community, and 20% comes from the Yellowstone Club. For the Spanish Peaks project, all of the water will come from the Big Sky County Water and Sewer District wastewater treatment facility.