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<br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br /> <br />THE DEVELOPMENT, CONDUCT AND EVALUATION <br />OF A CLOUD SEEDING PROGRAM <br />FOR GUNNISON COUNTY, COLORADO <br />2003-2004 WINTER SEASON <br /> <br />1.0 INTRODUCTION <br /> <br />North American Weather Consultants (NA WC) conducted a five month winter cloud <br />seeding program for the upper Gunnison River watersheds above Blue Mesa Reservoir from <br />November 15, 2003 through April 15, 2004, which is the second winter season of project <br />operations. NA WC had been contacted in the fall of 2002 regarding the design and conduct of a <br />program within Gunnison County. A program was designed, including the preparation of a <br />feasibility study, and a permit obtained for the program from the Colorado Water Conservation <br />Board. That initial program was operated from February 1 through April 15, 2003 (Griffith, et <br />ai, 2003). The program sponsors requested that the intended target area be expanded from only <br />those drainages above 9000' in Gunnison County to include watersheds that had their headwaters <br />in adjoining counties to the south. Figure 1.1 provides the location of this expanded area. <br />NA WC submitted an application for a new five year permit to include these areas of interest in <br />the program. The Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) held a public hearing in <br />Gunnison on this application on October 9, 2003. The CWCB granted a five year permit to <br />NA WC for the new addition to the earlier target area on November 20, 2004. CWCB personnel <br />gave NA WC verbal approval to begin seeding on November 15th. <br />NA WC installed an additional nine cloud seeding generator sites for the 2003-2004 <br />winter season to cover the expanded target area, bringing the total number of generators to <br />twenty-seven. Twenty different storm periods were seeded during the five months of the seeding <br />operations. The following sections describe this season's operations and evaluation of <br />effectiveness in more detail. <br /> <br />1 <br />