In order to avoid discharging effluent to the Gallatin River, the well-known ski town of Big Sky, Montana, is considering a proposal to use treated wastewater to make snow for ski areas.

Currently, ski resorts are using groundwater to make snow, and Big Sky’s population growth is threatening that limited resource. Using treated wastewater for snow could alleviate that problem while avoiding discharges into the river.

“It’s getting more and more difficult to have a skiable snowpack come Thanksgiving or December,” one ski resort manager told NewsDeeply. “The trend we’re seeing is that snowmaking is going to become more and more necessary to hit those opening dates.”

In 2012, Arizona Snowbowl became the first resort in the world to use treated wastewater for snowmaking, and only a handful of ski areas in the nation are currently doing it.

Source: NewsDeeply

Cryptocurrency Miners Target Water Utility in Europe

Miners of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have used malware to hijack computers for processing power for some time, but a recent case in Europe marks the first time a water utility’s computer system has been targeted.

The malware is designed to operate in the background and use as much processing power as it can while still going unnoticed in an effort to use someone else’s electricity to mine for digital coins.

Infrastructure security firm Radiflow discovered such malware at one of its utilities, determining it had been running for about three weeks before being discovered, causing degraded system performance for the utility during that time.

Source: Wired.com

Corpus Christi Wastewater System Partially Collapses

A Naval air station at Corpus Christi, Texas, recently saw its wastewater system partially collapse.

The base’s residents and guests were asked to limit their water use pending repairs to the treatment plant.

It’s unknown how long the repairs will take.

Source: Caller.com

Wisconsin's Largest WWTP Spills Untreated Sewage Into Kinnickinnic River

An unknown amount of untreated sewage recently spilled from Wisconsin’s largest wastewater treatment plant into the Kinnickinnic River.

Wastewater workers at the Jones Island Treatment Plant saw a pool of untreated sewage on surface water draining into a storm sewer which discharges into the river. The employees reacted by reducing pressure in a number of pipes to stop the leak.

The director of the sewerage district authorized a $70,000 excavation to determine the location of the leak.

Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel