FOR  IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
September 25, 2009  | Contact: Elouise Brown, Dooda (NO) Desert Rock Committee President – www.doodadesertrock.com

DOODA (NO) DESERT ROCK RELIEF AT US EPA  ENVIRONMENTAL 
APPEALS  BOARD  PSD PERMIT DECISION  

“We are relieved to hear that the US EPA Environmental Appeals Board finally granted the agency’s request to take back the clean air permit for the failed Desert Rock Power Plant.   It confirms our position that the initial permit grant was ill-considered and premature,” said Elouise Brown, President of Dooda Desert Rock.  The organization, a grassroots Navajo effort to block a third coal-fired power plant in the Four Corners area, continues to resist and have a very active encampment for almost three years.  Read the rest of this entry »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Monday, September 21, 2009

CONTACT
media@savethepeaks.org

Flagstaff, AZ — A group of concerned citizens will not let the potential health risks of using treated sewage effluent to make snow at the Snowbowl ski area on the San Francisco Peaks outside of Flagstaff get swept under the rug on a technicality. Although Snowbowl is a private, for-profit entity, the ski area operates on federal land under a special use permit. As a result, the federal government must approve Snowbowl’s plan to use 100% reclaimed sewer water to make snow—something that is not done anywhere else in the world. The City of Flagstaff agreed to sell Snowbowl the treated sewage effluent and off they went, or so they thought. The San Francisco Peaks are well documented as sacred and holy to, at least, thirteen of the tribes in the Southwestern United States, all of whom viewed the decision as a direct threat to their religious and cultural survival. Litigation on cultural and religious issues surrounding the project was appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which recently declined to consider the case. The Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case left a decision of an en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in place which, as is often the case, went against the tribes. The use of reclaimed sewer water to make snow, however, was not only repulsive to people who hold the San Francisco Peaks sacred, it raised concerns from skiers and the community over the safety of being immersed in, and even eating, snow made from non-potable treated sewage effluent. Read the rest of this entry »