Mount Snow is giving up on a $10 million plan to build an elaborate snowmaking system using water from Somerset Reservoir and instead will build a snowmaking pond fed by the Deerfield River, officials said.
The prospect of a legal battle by groups opposed to the Somerset plan now has the resort’s new owners planning a 12-acre pond with a 120 million-gallon capacity, which it calls the West Lake Project.
Tim Boyd, president of Peaks Resorts which bought the resort last April says the Somerset project could have turned into a long-term legal battle and the company needs snowmaking now.
Resort officials have met with the state Agency of Natural Resources and the U-S Army Corps of Engineers, both of which support the pond project in principle, according to Mount Snow general manager Kelly Pawlak.