Finally, a federal appeals court does the right thing:

A federal appeals panel on Monday blocked a ski resort’s plan to make artificial snow by spraying treated wastewater on mountains that Indian tribes consider sacred.

In a unanimous ruling, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, overturned a lower court ruling from January 2006 that would have let the resort, the Arizona Snowbowl, to proceed with the snowmaking and other upgrades on the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff.

This has been a source of pain to multiple tribes for years.  Bad enough that (as with Taos Pueblo), the tribes’ sacred mountain is desecrated daily for commercial purposes (by skiers and snowboarders in winter and sightseers in summer).  But Snowbowl wanted to add an artifical snowmaking operation that would spray the mountain with "snow" made from treated wastewater.

Yeah.  Sewer water.

Snowbowl’s argument:  "But - but - but it’s treated!  It’s not dirty anymore!" 

The tribes’ response:  "It’s sewer water, you idiots.  You want to put sewer water, treated or not, on the sacred ground that we use for ceremonials?!"  As the NYT put it:  "They said using wastewater, no matter how clean, would offend deities and spiritually contaminate herbs and other plants used for medicine and religious ceremonies."

Of course, resort owners are whining:

A spokesman for the resort, Dave Smith, said it would not comment until executives had reviewed the decision. In interviews, they have said it will be difficult to keep the resort open without the snowmaking. The resort, on 777 acres in the Cococino National Forest, struggles with dry weather.

First, Snowbowl has no right to be there in the first place.  This is land that has been used for centuries for sacred purposes by thirteen tribes.  Its sacredness is so central that all of these tribes have been able to put aside major differences in beliefs and even great historical enmity to come to agreement on its collective use.

Second, that’s what they get for trying to operate a moneymaking scheme in a climate ill-suited to it.  But, as is typical of contemporary America, money and technology are always expected to trump nature.  It’s the same attitude that drives yuppie idiots in this state to waste precious water every summer to maintain golf-course-green lawns in front of their McMansions - in an arid desert climate that, for the last five or six years, has been undergoing the worst drought the area has seen in more than 500 years. 

It’s also the same attitude that has the spoiled denizens of Rio Rancho demanding construction of a freeway right through the middle of the sacred Petroglyphs.  Because, you know, what’s a thousand-year-old sacred site of incalculable archaeological value compared to their ability to shave five minutes off their commute?  You know what?  When you extend Metro’s Red Line up into Georgetown by way of the middle of the nave of the National Cathedral, then maybe we’ll talk.  Until then, STFU.

In fact, here’s Snowbowl’s recent track record:

It opened late this winter for the third time in four years and closed on Sunday, in the middle of what is usually its busiest month, because of warm temperatures and a lack of significant snowfall.

Two years ago, enough snow fell for 139 days of skiing. Last year, the resort operated for 15 days.

Um, Nature’s trying to tell you something, guys.  You don’t belong there.

There have long been questions about the federal government’s permitting and approval processes that allowed Snowbowl’s developers to construct this abomination in the first place.  Maybe this will be the first step in getting it shut down once and for all.