WMOD00281

• Title: The Impacts of Snow Enhancement - Technology Assessment of Winter Orographic Snowpack Augmentation in the Upper Colorado River Basin
• Date: 1/1/1974
• State: CO
• Weather Modification - Doc Type: Report

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PREE'ACE

A. Prologue

During the last 20 years, many small scale experiments and operational
programs have been conducted in which winter clouds have been seeded to
incre4se the sDowfallin the high mountain areas of the Western United States.
When the augmented snowpack melts in the springtime. it produces additional
runoff that in turn is llsed to produce. hydroelectric power as well as additioJlal
water for agricultural, municipal, and industrial uses. This cxpt~ricncc has led
to a clear understanding of the technical principles and the conditions under
which winter orographic* cloud seeding is effective. At present the Bureau of
Reclamation is conducting a large scale, rigorously designed pilot project in
the San Juan Mountains of Colorado to evaluate the effectiveness of this new
technology. At the end of this five-year evaluation program, the Bureau will
be prepared to implement a large scale Winter Orographic Snowpack Aug-
mentation (WOSA)t program throughout the Upper Colorado River Ba.r;in.
More and more people are becoming increasingly c.oncerned over the
c\pparcntly unbridled exploitation of technology without adequate provisions
for allcviatiug the undesirable side effects of the new technology. As a result
of this concern, both houses of Congress have been moving toward creation of
an Office of Technology Assessment that would be called on to supply the
legislators with early warning of the implications of pending programs. In a
parallel effort, the National Science Foundation initiated a Technology Assess-
ment Program in the Office of Interdisciplinary Research (now part of the
RANNi Program) to develop the techniques of technology <Issessment and to
perform technology assessments in selected problem areas. The \VOSA pro-
gram provides an excellent opportunity for a prototype technology assessment
because its technical feasibility has been established but there is e-'isentially no
established public policy for dealing wit.h the effects of a large scale operational
program. Consequently, in January 1971 , the National Science Foundation
initiated a. contract with SRI to conduct a technology assessment of winter
orographic snowpack augmentation in the Upper Colorado River Basin. This
technology as.se.'j~111ent consists of:

A cost/effectiveness analysis of \VaSA based on the current state of
the art insnowpack augmentation.
An estimate of the improvement in costs aDd beneflts that might be
<lchicvcd within the next five years through improvements in the st:lte
of the art of snowpack augmentation.

· Orographic means of or relating to mountains; thus orographic snowpack is the accumu-
lation of snow in the mountains.
t WOSA is an acronym formed from the. phrase Wime.r Orographic Snowpack Augmenta-
tion.
+ Research Appliecllo National Needs.

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