Waste Revival: Three Ski Resorts’ Creative Uses for Waste

From chairlifts powered by alternative energy to green building efforts to on-mountain restoration projects, ski area environmental programs have come a long way. Three resorts in particular are putting waste to work—whether from cows, people, or a coal mine. 

In addition to powering the K-1 Express Gondola, Bertha also checks tickets.

Vermont’s Killington Resort is powering its K-1 Express Gondola with electricity generated from local dairy cows, Aspen Snowmass is capturing methane gas produced by a nearby coal mine and converting it to electricity, and Arizona Snowbowl is using sewage effluent to make all of its artificial snow. 

The only thing cuter than this calf is the fact that his shit enables you to ski.

Killington Resort partnered with Green Mountain Power (GMP) and local Vermont dairy farms to convert cow manure into electricity to power its K-1 Express Gondola year-round. According to the EPA the decomposition of cow manure produces seven percent of the country’s methane, a gas that traps more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. The Cow Power Program collects cow manure from participating Vermont dairy farms, mixes the waste with wash water from the milking equipment, and pumps it into an anaerobic digester. The waste sits in the digester for about three weeks at 100 degrees Fahrenheit, allowing bacteria to convert the manure into biogas composed of about 60% methane gas and 40% carbon dioxide. The methane gas is then delivered to a modified natural gas engine, which consequently spins an electric generator to create electricity. Finally, the energy generated is fed into the GMP electrical system and distributed to the K-1 Express Gondola and, as of this winter, Killington’s Peak Lodge. 

When you flush a toilet in Flagstaff, you can make a skier smile.

Last season, Arizona Snowbowl in Northern Arizona became the first ski resort to make artificial snow exclusively from sewage effluent. In a volcanic mountain range without freeflowing water, Snowbowl was never able to make snow until the resort constructed a water supply line from nearby Flagstaff. While all of Flagstaff’s reclaimed water is allocated in summer, there’s an abundance in winter, which means Snowbowl can use up to 1.5 million gallons of the repurposed waste water to make snow. The water is tested daily by the city. The resort now blows snow on snow on sixty percent of its terrain. It’s revolutionized the resort’s business, creating predictable openings and a longer season, says the resort’s general manager, J.R. Murray. Yet it has also stirred controversy, as some question the long-term ecological impacts of using reclaimed waste water.  The project has also been criticized for using effluent on peaks considered sacred by many tribes in the Four Corners area.

When life hands you shit, make some snow.

And in Colorado, Aspen Snowmass is using electricity generated from the first waste-methane-to-energy power plant west of the Mississippi River. The three-Megawatt power plant at Oxbow’s Elk Creek Mine in Somerset, about eighty miles from Aspen, will generate enough electricity to meet the needs of Aspen Skiing Company’s annual operations including four ski areas, three hotels and seventeen restaurants.

Rather than passing gas, Oxbow’s Elk Creek Mine helps power Aspen.

The power plant captures and combusts waste methane gas emitted from the mine that would otherwise be lost to the atmosphere and converts it to electricity. And by destroying waste methane, a potent greenhouse gas, this project eliminates three times the carbon pollution created by the resort each year while also garnering carbon offset benefits. 

This is the most beautiful methane capturing system we've ever seen.

For most ski resorts, their very existence and daily operations have a significant impact on the environment. Nonetheless, programs such as these stand to reduce this impact while reimaging the future.

By harnessing waste methane, this mine helps keeps the lights on and the lifts turning at Aspen. And, in the event that the Aspen Skiing Company needs to expand, the mine's coal piles offer some nice bowl skiing.