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The Environmental Problems Caused by Snow-making on Ski Resorts By Frankie Chapin. Snow-making: A Brief History. Dr. Ray Ringer accidentally created man-made snow while studying the effects of rime icing on the intake of a jet engine.
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The Environmental Problems Caused by Snow-making on Ski Resorts By Frankie Chapin
Snow-making: A Brief History • Dr. Ray Ringer accidentally created man-made snow while studying the effects of rime icing on the intake of a jet engine. • Tey Manufacturing was responsible for the beginning of designing snow-making machines and receiving patents for such work. • Wayne Pierce was issued the first patent for a snow-making machine. • Alden Hanson created the “new technology” in snow-making, a fan snow-maker was created. • The first snow-making machines were installed in Killington Ski Resort in the early 1960’s.
Snow-making history cont. • Alden Hanson created the “new technology” in snow-making, a fan snow-maker was created. • The first snow-making machines were installed in Killington Ski Resort in the early 1960’s.
Snow-making’s use of Water Using Sunday River Ski Resort in Maine • Their system can convert up to 9,000 gallons of water per minute to snow • That’s enough water to fill a standard 16x32 in ground swimming pool in just over two minutes
Snow-making’s water usage cont. • That much snow can make more than 3,100 cubic feet of snow each minute could cover a football field, including the endzones with over 3 and a half feet of snow • Sunday River still only uses about 20 percent of the water that the state lets them use
Sunday River’s water usage cont. • The amount of water used by Sunday River to make snow in a season is less than the amount of water needed to make 2 feet of natural snow storm.
Snow-making’s negative impacts • The river flow of the water that is used for snow-making is reduced about 2-9 percent at the time of withdrawl. • Increasing the amount of snow creates more water in the spring season
The Permitting Process • Every major developmental project in Vermont requires a series of permits from state, regional and local authorities • Act 250 Permit, from the District Environmental Commission, determines the environmental impacts and regulates the development of private land in the state of Vermont • People compare this permit to FERC dam licensing. It is very long, and hard and takes a lot of environmental research. • The Fish and Wildlife Service is also required to make sure that snow-making isn’t harming the fish in their habitat
Snow-making is not that bad • Throughout the 25 years of snow-making in Vermont, there has been no evidence of any loss in fish population • 50 percent of the water used in snow-making is returned to the ground within 30 days • 95 percent of the water used is returned by May.
Snow-making and running out of water • People worry about running out of water because of snow-making and this is not true • Most of the water used is returned to the ground after use • As long as the Ski Resorts go through the correct permits necessary, snow-making is a safe and not that bad of a thing to do