The attorney fees Snowbowl is seeking from Shanker range from $300 to $425 per hour.

The 9th Circuit has recently declined to re-hear arguments (with a full panel of judges) that the U.S. Forest Service didn't fully weigh the risks of using reclaimed wastewater to make snow.

A three-judge panel of the same court also rejected Shanker's arguments in a February ruling that called the suit "a gross abuse of the judicial process."

Shanker notes that Snowbowl never was forced to go to court in these cases because it was the U.S. Forest Service being sued in every case.

"Snowbowl was never dragged into court, it chose to intervene in the proceeding(s) even though its interests were more than adequately represented by the Forest Service. i.e., it chose to participate in the 'legal nightmare,'" Shanker wrote to the court this week.

ONE CASE PENDING

One case remains pending in the Snowbowl legal battle, and it raises different legal questions.

The Hopi Tribe has a pending case that argues the U.S. Forest Service didn't fully analyze possible risks of snowmaking to a plant found only high on the Peaks and is federally listed as threatened -- the San Francisco Peaks Ragwort.