Action Alert: Save the Peaks Campaign Erects Tree-Sit

View of the tree-sit on the San Francisco Peaks.

Tree-Sit Halts Pipeline Construction on the San Francisco Peaks, Protester Demands Clean Water and Clean Snow

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
From Monday, August 20, 2012

Flagstaff, AZ – This morning we erected a tree-sit to protect our community and our children from the City of Flagstaff’s sanctioning and use of hazardous treated sewage, which contains antibiotic resistant genes, in our public spaces. The ropes securing this tree-sit stretch across the projected path of the City of Flagstaff’s and Arizona Snowbowl Ski Resort’s treated sewage effluent pipeline, currently under construction on Mars Hill near Thorpe Park.

After years of construction delays, court challenges, and resistance from community members, a 14-mile sewage pipeline that Snowbowl would like to see carrying millions of gallons of treated sewage effluent yearly from the City of Flagstaff to Snowbowl is near completion. Snowmaking is scheduled to begin at the end of November, when a combination of pharmaceutical, industrial, commercial, and household discharge will be sprayed from snow machines onto the San Francisco Peaks.

“If they choose to continue construction, they must publicly account for my life among the diversity of human and non-human beings their ecocide threatens.” said James Kennedy, the NAU student who currently sits atop the more than 75ft tall ponderosa pine tree. “For the purity of our water, for the safety of our community, and for the health of a fragile alpine ecosystem, we must halt this pipeline!”

Tree-sitter, James Kennedy, locked down to protect the sacred peaks!

Xander Vautrin, an on the ground supporter of the tree-sit believes “The City of Flagstaff, the Forest Service, and the Snowbowl Corporation are recklessly  disregarding the safety of the greater public, of wildlife, our water and our environment by refusing to consider the long-term impact of exposure to wastewater.”

Recently published research conducted on treated sewage effluent in Flagstaff has found antibiotic resistant bacteria after completion of the treatment process.  Though reduced by treatment, the bacteria “dramatically rebounded at the point of use.”¹ This pipeline constitutes an urgent public health risk, as antibiotic resistance renders modern drugs ineffective against dangerous bacterial infections. This threatens the life of those in our community already at risk: the elderly, the sick, and the very young.

Additional research recently published in the Flagstaff Noise demonstrated a clear danger to plant life irrigated with wastewater, illustrating a serious threat to Groundsel, an endangered plant found only on the San Francisco Peaks.

“All water is connected. It is illogical and dangerous to believe that the effects of antibiotics, contraceptive hormones, industrial contaminants, and microbial pathogens —all found in Flagstaff’s treated sewage effluent—will be limited to a few runs on Snowbowl or to the Lowell Observatory grounds,” stated Derek Minnobloom another on-the-ground supporter of the tree-sit.

“Our public officials have failed all of us – not only to ensure our public safety, a clean healthy future for our water and our children – but also to protect the rights of indigenous peoples whose land we’re on,” stated Ariana Sauer, a volunteer with ProtectThePeaks.org and a tree-sit supporter. “This action is in solidarity with the thirteen indigenous nations who hold this mountain sacred.”

Tree-sit life-support lines anchored to Snowbowl machinery.

We invite those of you who believe in the safety and health of our children, the sanctity of our environment, and the protection of public water to demand that:

 – The City of Flagstaff rescind the wastewater contract with Snowbowl!

 – An immediate moratorium on the City of Flagstaff’s use of treated sewage effluent in public spaces where any person may come in contact with reclaimed wastewater, until new research and technology is available to mitigate long-term environmental & community health risks.

 -The use of public water in this desert climate of Flagstaff with only a projected 25-38 years of water left for people’s consumption, should be cleaned and used for people to drink, not for a private corporation to make a profit.

-President Obama fulfill campaign promises to protect human rights and sacred sites.

City of Flagstaff Mayor & Council:
PHONE: (928) 779-7600
EMAIL: council@flagstaffaz.gov