“This has been a long fought battle . ... Unfortunately, we did not prevail.”

Environmental activists and local tribes have opposed snowmaking on the Peaks since before it began. In 2002, a decade before Snowbowl froze its first flakes, it made an agreement to buy treated wastewater from the City of Flagstaff and use it for snowmaking. The Forest Service approved of the deal. Local tribes did not. They sued. A federal court resolved the tribes’ claims in favor of the Forest Service, but the Hopi Tribe didn’t let the issue fade away. They filed another lawsuit in 2010. This time, the tribe claimed the wastewater was a public nuisance, because it contained leftover chemicals that hadn’t been filtered out.

Even trace amounts of those chemicals, Hopi and environmental advocates have long said, could damage the mountain. It’s unclear if the effects could be reversed.

“I’m not sure,” Kabotie said. “I’ve been traumatized a number of times in my life, and I’ll never be the same. But I’m still me. We bear our scars, right? They heal. But we never heal the same way.”

On Thursday, Kabotie court’s decision “typical.”

In their dissent, Chief Justice Bales and Justice Bolick argued that the majority’s ruling “largely ignores the distinctive harms alleged by the Hopi” and undermined the very purpose of the public nuisance law.

“The majority fails to appreciate that the wastewater will affect the Hopi’s use and enjoyment of ancestral lands that have played a central role in Hopi culture and religion since before the Coconino National Forest was of concern to the broader public,” the dissenters wrote.

They pointed out that neither Snowbowl nor the City of Flagstaff have argued that the resort’s use of treated wastewater doesn’t create a public nuisance. The tribe, Bales and Bolick wrote, should have been given a chance to make that claim.

Had the tribe claimed economic damage and not religious harm, the justices wrote, it likely would have gotten that chance.

“We may live in a material world,” they wrote, “but it is a sad comment on our law to suggest that other interests — such as religious traditions and practices manifest through millennia and recognized by federal law — cannot support a claim of special injury for purposes of the public nuisance doctrine.”

Snowbowl leaders and Flagstaff city officials insist the water quality exceeds all standards.

Flagstaff treats its water to “Class A+” quality — the highest possible level — using fine filters and something Director of Water Services Brad Hill called “activated sludge.” The result is nearly drinking-quality water, though it contains traces of personal care products and hormone regulators. Estrogen was the main concern.

“The leap from we know they’re here, to any human health impacts is a large leap,” Hill said. “And there’s no scientific evidence.”

The case carried an unspoken tension in the still-small town of Flagstaff. Many locals placed themselves on one side or the other, with little room in between. As the case slogged through the courts, Flagstaffians learned not to bring it up. It was better left undebated.

“I don’t pay much attention to the activism that just wants to make noise,” Murray said. “The ski area’s here. It’s been here. We’re a good land steward.”

But the tension was sometimes unavoidable. One Snowbowl employee said the ski area didn’t hire a security team until after it started making snow. called the