MEDIA TALKING POINTS

Mt. Hood Meadows – Proposed Snowmaking System

May 23, 2005

FOMH is not opposed to a snowmaking system on Mt. Hood but there are big questions to look at.

- There are real resource impacts to be considered. Meadows wants to use up to 54,000,000 gallons of water/year from the EFHR basin. Salmon and steelhead need the water Meadows wants to take from the river.

- Snowmaking is wasteful. Up to 1/3 of the water used to make snow is lost to evaporation and sublimation before it gets back into the river. We can’t afford to waste this water.

- Meadows also wants to excavate over 2.5 miles of ditches to bury power and water lines. The public has documented sever erosion and sedimentation results from similar project in the past. We don’t need to dig up Mt. Hood to make snow.

- The Forest Service and Mt. Hood Meadows are trying everything in their power to shut the public out of the process. They want to limit the public’s right to participate so they can fast track this process.

- The Forest Service wants to exclude this project from public review and administrative appeal under NEPA. The Forest Service should prepare an Environmental Assessment to look at the project’s impacts. The public must have a right to participate in order to defend Mt. Hood.

- FOMH tried to negotiate with Mt. Hood Meadows. Meadows tried to dictate the design, the timeline and the public process. They did offer to let us pick the color of the 1 million gallon water tank. Is that collaboration?

- Mt. Hood Meadows has a long history of breaking the law and abusing the environment. They have been targeted by the Army Corps of Engineers, DEQ and citizen groups for filling wetlands, contaminating Mt. Hood with fuel spills, and cutting down trees. Their expansion plans threaten the spotted owl, Chinook and coho salmon, steelhead and cutthroat trout in the EFHR. They get a D from the Ski Area Citizens’ Coalition for their environmental record.