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Sewage plant appeal filed by Sierra Club Ski hill's expansion depends on it By BETH QUINN Local environmentalists have appealed approval of a new sewage treatment plant for Mount Ashland, a key element of the resort's expansion plan now undergoing separate environmental review. "Our concerns are straightforward, the primary one being protecting the purity of Ashland's drinking water," said Charlotte Holzkamper, who heads the Rogue Group Sierra Club. Rogue River National Forest officials have proposed building the high-tech sewage treatment plant on land that lies within Ashland's municipal watershed. Treated effluent would be purified close to drinking water quality before being released into an underground drain, they say. Local environmentalists on Thursday appealed the Rogue forest's approval of the sewage treatment plant to Robert Williams, Region 6 forester, who can approve or overturn the local decision. "One of our concerns is the failure of the present system," said Steve Johnson of the Rogue forest. "We don't want to see a spill." He said officials considered several other locations for the plant but poor soils and size limitations excluded the others, leaving the site in the municipal watershed "the only feasible alternative." But environmentalists say that building a sewage treatment plant beyond the ski hill's present 1,600-skier-per-day capacity would prejudice future decision-making on Mount Ashland's expansion plan, which they've contested in a separate action. "Building and paying for this large-capacity plant is based on the false assumption that the ski area expansion is a done deal. It is not," Holzkamper said. The Sierra Club's earlier objections to a proposal to add a new 4,500-foot chairlift and five major ski runs forced the Rogue forest to complete an environmental impact statement, which will be released in February with a final decision expected by July. The ski area has already purchased a used chairlift for that project. The Sierra Club's appeal asks for a more in-depth environmental impact statement for the sewage plant expansion than the environmental assessment already completed. That should include a analysis of the presence of rare plants, an analysis of cumulative watershed effects, a study of alternative sites and Department of Environmental Quality approval of the technology to be employed in the proposed plant, the club said. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA