No business like snow business

The Victorian Government Water Trust has so far granted $1 million for the commencement of the effluent recycling scheme and provided $1 million as a loan to finance the scheme.

In total the project is expected to cost $3.5 million and is well on the way. The main works at the Mt Buller sewerage farm will be completed by the end of 2006. The recycling system will then be tested and the operations and quality of water monitored during the ski season of 2007 before it goes on line in 2008.

The present State Government-issued water licence, which allows pumping of water from the local Boggy Creek catchment, is restricted to 3Ml a day and 700Ml a year.

Water is pumped uphill from Boggy Creek, which is at 1,450m above sea level, through different middle stations to the Sun Valley dam at 1,710m above sea level. The Sun Valley reservoir, the snowmaking water storage, with a capacity of 70Ml has been 3-4m below normal levels for most parts of this season. Domestic water is diverted off from this scheme.

The snowmaking infrastructure and knowhow is provided by the Buller Ski Lifts, a private company owned by the Melbourne builder-developer Rino Grollo since 1992.

The outcomes of this investment in snowmaking infrastructure is the development of Mt Buller as a tourism destination over the last decade and as a plant school for a whole generation of professional skiers such as world champion Kirstie Marshall, the present Australian Labour Party backbencher and Victorian MLA, as well as Olympic champions Jacqui Cooper and Alisa Camplin.

Perhaps the crowning glory of the development of Mt Buller as a ski resort was the opening in 1997 of the La Trobe University campus catering to students interested in a career in ski tourism and hospitality. But La Trobe University is considering closing this campus at the end of this year and this year’s international aerial ski competition has been cancelled due to lack of snow.

The real problem in a snow drought is the lack of water for snowmaking. The Mount Buller snow making system can theoretically convert 720,000 litres of water to snow every hour. The Buller Ski Lifts Company use on average 1.3Ml, or more than 40 per cent of the daily cap on water drawn from Boggy Creek, for this purpose.

A simple calculation makes it clear that the entire daily 3Ml allowance of water is only enough for four hours of snowmaking each day under ideal conditions. During the four hours of operation about 7,000 cubic metres of man-made snow is created. This is only enough to cover 2.3 hectares of the 70 hectares of artificial snowmaking area to a depth of 30cm.

However, not all the snow melts away during the day so the man-made snow accumulates on the slopes. This frozen asset is underpinning the millions of dollars in private investments of the Mount Buller Ski Lifts Company as well as the developers of the ski chalets that line the snow clad ski slopes of Mount Buller.

Unlike Toowoomba the Mt Buller scheme is not up for a public referendum and will be completed in 2006-2007. The recycled water is not for domestic use, at least not immediately. It is crucially important for the whole Victorian High Country tourism economy and has got funding from and the political backing of the Bracks Government.

The recycling scheme will provide an additional 2Ml of Class A recycled water that is equally safe for use on irrigation for food crops and safe to spread on the ski slopes according to the Victorian Environmental Protection Agency.