Should Australia’s scarce resources be used to make snow so that people can indulge in an expensive sport for 10 weeks of the year? The water will eventually run into the waterways after being filtered through the soil and will end up as tap water for someone in South Australia or inland Victoria.

The negative case: It’s recycled sewerage. Snowmaking increases the water evaporation rate – marginally. The snow makers put a chemical in the snow, snomax, to make it freeze. This is on a continent where the Federal Government has banned cloud seeding on environmental grounds because the tablespoon of silver nitrate used to seed a cumulonimbus cloud formation might have a detrimental effect.

The affirmative case: The ski industry provides a large boost to the local economies of those regions lucky enough to have snow. The industry supports larger populations of towns servicing ski fields is higher than would be otherwise. The water is being used and discarded as sewerage, treated, then reused for snow making, then runs off.

The author has failed to mention the difficulty in getting treated sewerage off site when in a top of mountain facility. Snow making uses the least resources to remove treated sewerage from a mountaintop the sewerage farm.

It could be argued that if you can’t handle the sewerage from a mountain resort that you shouldn’t permit dwellings to be built above the snowline, thus forcing Australians to sleep off mountain and commute to the snowfields to ski each day.

I am more frightened of snomax than I am of treated sewerage and I prefer to see snow making using sewerage rather than drinking water. I also prefer the texture of real snow beneath my skis

Ah, Frank Zappa.....'watch out where the huskies go, dont you eat that yellow snow'. They just dont make 'em like that any more. He always was way ahead of the game.

As for recycled sewerage to make snow....as long as it doesnt cause disease, or stink, then why the hell not? Great idea. I'd love to see yuppies schusing in sh it, wouldnt you?