WESTERN SKIES - October 27, 2005

*** ARIZONA SNOWBOWL EXPANSION ***

ERIC WHITNEY: Ski season is already underway in Colorado, albeit in a very limited fashion. Skiing is a two billion dollar-a-year industry in Colorado, and there are plans for several resorts in the state to grow. To the south, however, plans to expand the Arizona Snowbowl near Flagstaff have brought a lawsuit from a coalition of Native American and environmental groups. As Maeve Conran reports, the coalition says that both biodiversity and religious rights are being threatened.

MAEVE CONRAN: The owners of Arizona Snowbowl plan to use waste water for snowmaking in the expansion area they're planning on U.S. Forest Service land. That has angered Native Americans who hold the San Francisco Peaks sacred. Klee Bonali, a Navajo and member of the Save the Peaks Coalition explains.

KLEE BONALI: Right now, we as native people in the United States are being persecuted for our religious freedom and our sacred sites are under attack. The San Francisco Peaks in northern Arizona are sacred to over thirteen tribes in the United States. They are home to threatened species, their ecosystem is alpine habitat.

And it's a very fragile area that the ski resort, Arizona Snowbowl, is threatening to further its expansion and desecration by making snow out of waste water, which is the most controversial part of this. And it's totally inappropriate from a cultural standpoint, and from a public health standpoint. They also want to clear cut seventy-four acres of old growth wilderness. They want to dig a fourteen-point-eight mile pipeline up the side of the mountain to pump this wastewater, approximately a hundred and eighty million gallons per season onto this mountain.

CONRAN: Because the case is still before the court, both the U.S. Forest Service and Arizona Snowbowl declined to comment directly on the litigation. But General Manager J.R. Murray did say that the resort completed an exhaustive three-year comprehensive environmental impact study, and full consultation with Native groups, in accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act. Murray says that the water that would be used in snowmaking is reclaimed water which meets drinking water standards. He says that using reclaimed water for irrigation is common in Arizona, and with the little or no groundwater available, this is the only way the resort can make snow. The Native Americans involved in the trial, however, say using recycled water on the Peaks is a violation of the Religious Freedom Repatriation Act. Jack Trope is the Executive Director of the Association on American Indian Affairs, in Washington, DC.

JACK TROPE: What the tribes and the traditional people involved are saying is, that if the ski area is expanded and particularly if recycled waste water is used for snowmaking up on the San Francisco Peaks, that this will interfere in a substantial way with their ability to perform certain ceremonies that are part of their religions. And so that interference with those ceremonial usage, and the impact of this development (particularly the recycled water) on the peaks themselves constitute a substantial burden on their ability to practice their religions

I think basically what it would mean is that the government would know that it has to take into account, in a much more serious way, the impact of what they're doing upon the religious practices and ceremonies and the free exercise of religion by Native Americans who hold certain places sacred and who perform various ceremonies and religious activities at those places.

CONRAN: The Religious Freedom Repatriation Act regulates any federal government actions that would substantially burden religion. In order to proceed, the government has to show a compelling interest in the action, and that there are no less restrictive alternatives. Jack Trope says that if the Native American tribes are successful in this case, the ruling could have implications for sacred ground on federal land all over the country.

For Western Skies, I'm Maeve Conran