TomWhite;c-63922 wroteI have some memories of what happened in VT. I don’t know all the details, but Les Otten and VT with Act 250 and probably other laws came up with deals. This wasn’t just ASC resorts. I’m thinking Sugarbush, Okemo, Stratton, Okemo, Mt. Snow and perhaps Stowe and Magic. It’s ponds for snowmaking water storage. Some resorts had ponds before the Les Otten days. But in areas lacking large bodies of water, there was a legitimate concern about winter withdrawals from streams. Fish need pools in streams deep enough to survive the winter. Yet ski areas need water for snowmaking, especially in the late fall and early winter. The solution was ponds and for the most part, ponds out of the stream/river flow. Once filled during strong flow periods, resorts don’t need to draw from streams during the winter. At least that’s the concept.
Mt. Snow’s West Lake project in 2017 is an example. The pond was built beside Cold Brook and has an inflatable dam/gate. I presume that is to let stream water in when deflated. I think pumping from streams into ponds is more typical. If I recall, Snow Lake which is in the stream flow, was to revert to a stream once West Lake was filled. Sugarbush has a large above ground tank near Lincoln Peak. They must also have a pond or two, but I can’t picture any. There’s a side benefit for property owners between pump stations and storage facilities. It is fire hydrants. You can see them along the Sugarbush Access Road. In the case of Mt. Snow, they are along Handle Rd.
No one size fits all in regards to water supply for ski areas, but in general these ponds are indeed continually filled during the winter. There are Conservation Flow (csm and fmf) limits that they must maintain when they are doing so as to not effect aquatic life, etc. Each is designed differently but they range from having weirs, inflatable dams, pumps, gravity fed, etc. The thought process is they can continuously slowly refill these larger water bodies and maintain acceptable conversation flow limits while they withdraw the large amount of water they need from the ponds.
West Lake at Mount Snow was done with an inflatable dam because it requires little maintenance and whent hey want to withdraw water they press a button to inflate it. Sugarbush (Lincoln) has their pond next to the Mad River with a weir, they then pump it up to the base. Sugarbush (Ellen) withdraws from the Chase Brook near the school and has no storage capacity other than the little pond by Inverness.
