The artificial snow guns

Agriculture and soil. Pollution control, soil remediation, humus and new agricultural techniques.
Dearcham
I understand econologic
I understand econologic
posts: 105
Registration: 29/10/03, 23:55




by Dearcham » 25/04/04, 18:49

Article World

This worrying effect was highlighted by two teams of French and Italian researchers. The culprit would be snomax, a product obtained from a bacteria.

Grenoble from our correspondent

In France today, 4 hectares of ski slopes, in 000 stations, are artificially snow-covered. In this context, the results of the studies, made public on Thursday 185 April during the Mountain Development Fair (SAM) in Grenoble, throw a chill.

"They raise many questions," notes Françoise Dinger, engineer at Cemagref in Grenoble. His team, which specializes in restoring station soils, led the French part of the research program, in association with a team from the University of Turin. In the 1990s, a previous program, funded by the Ministry of Tourism and the Environment, had shown that the oil particles found in snow came from grooming machines and not from artificial snow. This time, it is the study of an additive, snomax, which reveals the problem of the quality of the water used by artificial snow installations.

Manufactured and widely used in the United States since the 1980s, this additive is obtained from the culture of a bacterium, Pseudomonas syringae, which lives on the leaves of plants and whose characteristic is to promote the formation of gel. Authorized in certain countries (Switzerland), regulated or prohibited in others (including two provinces of Austria, where the use of additives is prohibited), its impact on humans and the environment had not yet been analyzed.

The stakes are high. By acting on the crystallization process of the drop of water, snomax makes it faster. Above all, it makes it possible to produce snow at increasingly higher temperatures (therefore at lower altitudes) and to significantly reduce the amounts of water and energy required for the production of the same amount of snow. The Rhône-Méditerranée-Corse basin agency made the calculation: 10 million cubic meters of water are consumed per year to supply snow cannons, equivalent to the annual consumption of a city of more than 170 000 inhabitants ...

"PRESENCE OF GERMES"

To reassure the operators, it was necessary to check that the bacteria were not found in the snow produced and that the additive did not pollute the runway vegetation. The French and Italian teams carried out measurement campaigns during three winters, respectively in Valloire (Savoie) and Antagnod, in Valle d'Aosta. Assessment: no trace of Pseudomonas was detected in the snow. No sooner has the French study highlighted certain differences in the vegetation, making it possible to conclude that "weak and long-term effects". "Mission accomplished", welcomes the sponsor of the program, the American York Snow Inc (80 employees worldwide for a turnover of 40 million euros in 2003).

Except that snomax, by offering a culture broth, has a multiplier effect. "The tank promotes the development of microorganisms", confirms Françoise Dinger. However, the microbiological analyzes, carried out, it is true, in the only French station, highlighted "the presence of germs of faecal origin, both in the stream water used to supply the snow plant, but also in the production circuit for artificial snow ". Result? The droplets projected by the frozen air jet, which transform into small ice crystals to delight skiers, are infected.

The authors of the study do not conclude, however, that there is a pathogenic risk for humans. "It would therefore be necessary to initiate a specific research program on the survival and development of these pathogens in snow", writes Françoise Dinger, for whom the problem is not so much the presence of microorganisms, which exist anyway in the environment and in natural snow, as their mode of propagation and their quantity. "What is the acceptable level?" Questions the researcher, who contacted the Ministry of Health and the Higher Council of Hygiene two years ago.

To avoid the pathogenic risk, the solution goes through controls and, if necessary, treatments of the water entering the snowmaking process, and this, whatever the method of sampling: aquifers, courses of , drinking water network or artificial reservoirs. But this approach is very expensive ...

"Dealing with the issue of artificial snow using only additives means avoiding tackling the problem in its entirety", reacts the Mountain Wilderness association, which fears, moreover, an abusive interpretation of the results. "The developers risk taking them for a blank check," worries Vincent Neirinck. However, according to him, bacteria or not, the environmental drawbacks remain: damage to the landscape with storage basins of several hundred thousand cubic meters, depletion of water resources, impacts on the environment. The artificial snow indeed leads to always equip more. "Originally intended to ensure the return to the bottom of existing domains, the guns are used today to create new tracks", insists Vincent Neirinck, who stigmatizes the installation of snow cannons on the Grande Motte glacier in Tignes, 3 meters above sea level.

Nicole cabret

Risk of conflict over water resources

A report carried out in 2002 and 2003 by the Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Scientific and Technological Choices (Opecst) on "the quality of water and sanitation in France" addresses "the impact of artificial snowmaking on water resource ". He noted that the production of artificial snow could "eventually cause conflicts of use". The Rhône-Méditerranée-Corse Water Agency indicates that "80% of alpine winter sports resorts are equipped with snow cannons". The report notes that with 4 m000 of water per hectare, artificial snow consumes "a much greater quantity than the irrigation of corn and close to the irrigation in Provencal arboriculture". However, most of the time, the pressure on the resource is low or moderate and "therefore does not cause conflicts of use". However, "difficulties may appear in the communes located downstream". In 3, a commune in Haute-Savoie was "confronted with a significant deterioration in the quality of its drinking water". The water withdrawals for snow cover had to be stopped.

• ARTICLE IN THE 24.04.04 EDITION
0 x
User avatar
PITMIX
Pantone engine Researcher
Pantone engine Researcher
posts: 2028
Registration: 17/09/05, 10:29
x 17




by PITMIX » 06/01/06, 10:15

Hello
Working in refrigeration I know that spraying water for cooling towers is dangerous if the water is not or poorly treated. The glaring example in Paris of the Georges Pompidou hospital.
Another observation that I expected in the article on snow cannons, the greenhouse effect. Water sprayed into the air forms an aerosol. The first greenhouse gas in Europe is water vapor. It will be hard to be green ...
Read in science et vie n ° 1060
0 x

 


  • Similar topics
    Replies
    views
    Last message

Back to "Agriculture: problems and pollution, new techniques and solutions"

Who is online ?

Users browsing this forum : No registered users and 320 guests