How Much Water Does it Take to Make Snow?
Ski resorts are starting to open, at what cost?
Image: Nataliya, Adobe Stock
Ski resorts have opened throughout the United States, primarily thanks to snowmaking operations. While we all love to get out there as many days as possible, what is the cost of these operations in terms of natural resources?
To What Extent Do Ski Resorts Use Snowmaking
The ski industry has been making snow for more than 70 years. According to the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA), approximately 87.5% of NSAA’s U.S. ski area members, or about 260 ski areas, have snowmaking operations. About 17% of skiable acres in the U.S. are covered by snowmaking. With changing climate comes reduced snowpack, according to the EPA the snowpack season has decreased by 18 days, on average, since 1982 across the Western United States. And a shorter snowpack season means shorter ski seasons; some studies have projected a decrease in ski season length between 30-100% for various resorts throughout the world. Snowmaking is almost essential for some resorts to stay afloat in these conditions.
How Much Energy Does Snowmaking Use?
Snowmaking is an energy-extensive operation. Researchers at the Universities of Waterloo and Innsbruck estimate that snowmaking in Canada uses 478,000 megawatts (MWh) of electricity (in comparison, one U.S. household uses about 10.7 9 megawatts annually), with 130,095 tonnes of associated CO2 emission, and 43.4 million cubic meters (11,359,398,251 gallons) of water to produce over 42 million cubic meters of technical snow. According to the NSAA study, snowmaking currently accounts for between 1 and 37% of total energy use across all resort operations in the United States, and contributes 14% of resorts’ total greenhouse gas emissions. With snowmaking production requirements projected to increase between 55% and 97% by 2050, energy use and emissions would also increase.
However, the studies indicate that a shift to renewable energy will alleviate this impact. Ski resorts are well aware of their environmental impact, and many are moving towards an emission-free model. Some are already there; for example, Arapahoe Basin’s snowmaking machines run 100% on solar energy.
How Much Water Does Snowmaking Use?
Snowmaking sounds like a water-intensive activity. By some estimates, it takes about 200,000 gallons of water to make one foot on one acre of ski slope. In 2021, ski resorts in the state of Colorado diverted 1.5 million gallons of water from streams or reservoirs for snowmaking operations. While this sounds like an awful lot of water, the water used for snowmaking makes up less than 1% of all uses for states or river basins that include snowmaking in water use tracking, according to NSAA. Plus, about 20% of that water returns to the environment following the season. However, there are questions about how well this water re-enters into the environment.
The Ecological Cost of Snowmaking
While much of the artificial snow made by ski resorts enters back into the environment, there are some ecological concerns. Artificial snow melts differently than natural snow and may impact biodiversity in local ecosystems. Further, there are questions about contamination from additives that are sometimes used to enhance snowmaking.
With the changing climate, ski resorts are projected to rely more on snowmaking to stay in business and continue boosting regional tourism. Many are shifting to a renewable model to make the practice less impactful.
