Prosecuting Spanish Peaks for Clean Water Act violations.
Spanish Peaks Mountain Club is a private ski and golf resort in Big Sky that uses treated waste water to irrigate its golf course. Cottonwood settled a Clean Water Act lawsuit against the resort in 2022 that required it to replace the torn liner of its sewage holding pond. Spanish Peaks then drained the leaking holding pond by unlawfully spraying the treated sewage onto its ski runs and into a tributary of the Gallatin River. Spanish Peaks has continued to spray its treated sewage into the tributary of the Gallatin River throughout the summer and fall of 2023.
A Ph.D researcher at the University of Maryland prepared an isotopic report and concluded the algae in the Gallatin River and its tributaries is caused by Spanish Peaks’ illegal discharge of treated sewage. The algae harms aquatic insects and trout populations. Cottonwood is now asking the federal court to stop development in Spanish Peaks to protect the Gallatin River and its tributaries.