Wastewater Skiing

Danielle Jackson

Why let sewage go to waste? A Victoria, Australia ski resort says you don't have to: It completed trials in April in which treated wastewater was converted into man-made snow so clean that people can eat it.

David Westphalen of the Mount Buller Resort says the idea developed when environmental authorities asked the ski palace to investigate disposing of its treated waste onsite. “We can have 20,000 people in the village on any one day during the snow season, and obviously they do the human thing, and we end up with sewage,” Westphalen says.

So, resort managers decided to see whether the waste could be sufficiently disinfected and filtered, then put through snowmaking machines on the slopes.

In the trials, the waste passed through three separate processes, including ultrafiltration through a membrane that removes bacteria and viruses. The result, Westphalen says, was recycled water that was “absolutely crystal clear … It's actually better that what we pull out of the creek.”

The resort now is waiting for the results of a final consumer test and hopes the idea isn't tossed into the toilet.

Source: Yahoo! News