Thirsty Colo. aims to harvest hope from the clouds

Water board proposes seeding-program fund

Jerd Smith, Rocky Mountain News

Published January 25, 2006 at midnight

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Colorado plans to establish a permanent fund for cloud seeding in hopes of boosting water supplies at home and in other Colorado River Basin states.

Under a proposal by the Colorado Water Conservation Board, a $75,000 fund would be established this year to provide grants for those who wish to try their luck with the weather gods.

State water officials hope the program will grow, possibly through partnerships with water utilities and other western states hoping to increase water supplies by boosting mountain snowpacks.

The water board's action comes as other thirsty western states eye cloud-seeding programs and as federal legislation to fund more research is pending before Congress.

Late last year, Wyoming approved a five-year, $8.8 million cloud-seeding program with a strong research component.

Rod Kuharich, director of the Colorado Water Conservation Board, said that any new cloud-seeding initiatives would comply with existing rules. For instance, if mountain snowpacks reached 120 percent of average, any cloud-seeding activity would stop to prevent large storms from inundating high-country resort towns.

"We don't want to be in a position of creating problems for mountain communities," Kuharich said.

As the fast-growing American West wrestles with a lingering drought and water shortages, policy-makers believe that the pressure to seed the clouds will grow. But they want proof that it works and that there won't be harmful results, such as floods, or less rain or even less snow.

In 2002, when the drought hit hard, 14 Front Range cities, led by Denver, raced to get a state permit to begin what would become the largest weather-modification program ever undertaken in Colorado, at a cost of about $1.2 million.

State water officials, researchers and water utilities hoped that the program would generate enough scientific evidence to determine conclusively whether seeding clouds can force them to produce more snowflakes than normal.

But the research failed to yield answers, in part because it didn't last long enough, and federal research funds ran out.

In Colorado, cities and ski areas that want to seed clouds must first get a permit from the Water Conservation Board. Other states, such as California, allow cloud-seeding without permits.

How seeding works

• Generators shoot small silver iodide particles into clouds. In theory, cold moisture adheres to the particles, which fall as snow.

• Typical precipitation increases range from 10 to 15 percent (in wintertime cold climate areas).

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