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<br />,#' <br />. <br /> <br />Las Vegas SUN: New look at old idea could be a rainmaker <br /> <br />ENTERTAINMENT <br /> <br />. Todav's A & E <br />. Las Veaas <br />. TV & Movies <br />. Theater & Music <br /> <br />SERVICES <br /> <br />. Classifieds <br />. Yellow Paaes <br />. Subscribe <br />. Contact Us <br /> <br />Assistant Interior Secretary Mark Umbaugh, who heads the bureau, cautioned <br />against "weather modification" efforts at a June 20 conference in Boulder, <br />Colo. <br /> <br />"While we are looking at ways to increase water supplies, we are considering a <br />cautious approach to the use of weather modification," Umbaugh said at the <br />conference, which was devoted to weather modification technologies, <br />particularly cloud seeding. "The scientific work so far has not been able to <br />measure - and therefore has not been able to demonstrate - that weather <br />modification activities effectively produce additional water supplies." <br /> <br />Umbaugh noted that the Colorado River and its reservoirs are less than 60 <br />percent full, and water managers fear the return of sustained drought. <br />Nonetheless, the federal government has to be careful where it spends its <br />money, he said, and the uncertainties of cloud seeding make it a poor <br />candidate for federal dollars: <br /> <br />I "We are in a time of limited federal funding - that is a reality that we all have to <br />deal with. We have to get the most 'bang for the buck' in terms of stretching <br />water supplies in the Colorado Basin." <br /> <br />The federal focus will be on conservation, storage agreements called "banking" <br />among river states, infrastructure investments to stop unintended water loss <br />and continued research, Umbaugh said. <br /> <br />"Even though some are suggesting that weather modification may show <br />promise as a management tool, we must continue to focus on the tools that are <br />working for us today," he said. <br /> <br />Others believe the research shows more promise. <br /> <br />i A study for the Upper Colorado River Commission, which manages the <br />Colorado River from Lake Powell north, finds that cloud seeding in the Rocky <br />Mountains could provide five times the water Las Vegas uses. The study, <br />delivered in March and prepared by the private North American Weather <br />Consultants Inc., a member of the Weather Modification Association, suggests <br />that areas targeted for the technology could see increases in precipitation from <br />5 percent to 15 percent - with a total potential payoff of almost 1.4 million acre- <br />feet. <br /> <br />Las Vegas draws 300,000 acre-feet from the Colorado River to satisfy most of <br />the urban area's water needs. One acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons. <br /> <br />The seeding cost, according to the Upper Colorado River Basin study, would <br />be $7 million annually, or about $5 per acre-foot. In contrast, the Water <br />Authority spends about $300 to bring an acre-foot to municipal distributors in <br />the Las Vegas Valley. <br /> <br />In October, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which <br />supplies most of Southern California, found similar results. Cloud seeding <br />could produce between 1.1 million and 1.8 million acre-feet in the upper basin <br />and another 830,000 acre-feet in the lower basin, the agency reported. <br /> <br />Other groups and scientists, including the American Meteorological Society, <br />agree that at a minimum, cloud seeding needs more research. <br /> <br />http://www.1asvegassun.comlsunbin/stories/sun/2006/jull06/5666505 3 5 .html <br /> <br />Page 2 of3 <br /> <br />9/11/2006 <br />