WMOD00319

• Title: North American Interstate Weather Modification Council - Fiscal Year 2009 Request
• Prepared By: McClintock Associates, Inc.
• Date: 1/1/2007
• Weather Modification - Doc Type: General Information

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p.o. Box 43020 · Phoenix, AZ 85080-3020
23636 North Seventh Street · Phoenix, AZ 85024

623-869-2333 · www.cap-az.com

C8mIAL ANIOIIAMOiIlCT

January 23,2008

The Honorable Jon Kyl
United States Senate
730 Hart Senate Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Kyl:

I am writing to express the support of the Central Arizona Water Conservation District
(CA WCD) for H.R. 3445, The Weather Mitigation Research and Development Policy
Authorization Act of 2007, which has been introduced by Senator Hutchison. CA WCD operates
and maintains the Central Arizona Project and is charged with delivering, managing and
protecting the majority of Arizona's share of the Colorado River. Because CA WCD holds the
junior priority water right in the lower Colorado River Basin, we are particularly concerned
about future shortages. Accordingly, CA WCD is actively participating in weather modification
projects to augment water supplies in the Colorado River Basin.

Evaluations of the potential for snowpack augmentation by wintertime cloud seeding in the
Colorado River Basin indicate that a significant increase in runoff can be attained. For example,
a 2006 U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) evaluation indicates the potential for generating up
to 800,000 additional acre-feet of water in the Colorado River system in an average year if the
states in the Colorado River watershed were to implement new programs and designate new
areas for cloud seeding. An additional benefit is increased hydropower generated by increased
runoff. A cooperative agreement among the seven Colorado River Basin states (Arizona,
California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming) is in place to enable
wintertime cloud seeding in the states of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming to benefit the entire
Colorado River System.

CA WCD supports additional research to increase the effectiveness of existing programs and to
develop better tools for the deployment and management of weather modification technologies.
Weather modification operations and regulation currently reside-and should stay-with state
and local governments. CA WCD believes the federal role should focus on assisting with applied
research, practical technology transfer programs, and streamlining of permitting procedures for
weather modification projects. The recent USBR Weather Damage Modification Program
(WDMP) implemented a successful model for combining local, state, and federal resources to
provide a means for scientific evaluation of operational rainfall, snowfall enhancement, and hail
suppression projects in California, Colorado, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, and
Utah. CA WCD supports this cooperative federal-state research model.