Laserfiche WebLink
<br />STATE OF COLORADO <br /> <br />Colorado Water ConselVation Board <br />Department of Natural Resources <br />1313 Sherman Street, Room 721 <br />Denver, Colorado 80203 <br />Phone: (303) 866.3441 <br />Fax: (303)866-4474 <br />www.cwcb.state.co.us <br /> <br /> <br />February 27,2008 <br /> <br />Bill Ritter, Jr. <br />Governor <br /> <br />The Honorable Mark Udall <br />House Committee on Science & Technology <br />United States House of Representatives <br />100 Cannon House Building <br />Washington, D.C. 20515 <br /> <br />Hanis D. Shennan <br />DNR Executive Director <br /> <br />Jennifer 1.. Gimbel <br />CWCR Director <br /> <br />Dan McAuliffe <br />CWCB Deputy Director <br /> <br />Dear Congressman Udall: <br /> <br />I would like to thank you for introducing H.R. 3445 in the II Oth Congress and previously H.R. <br />2995 in the l09th Congress, which address weather modification activities in the United States. <br />During the 2007-08 winter season in Colorado, a collective $750,000 will be expended by the <br />Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) and local interests to operate cloud seeding <br />programs that benefit ski areast water providers, recreation and environmental needst and other <br />in-state and out-of state interests. Cloud seeding operations have occurred continuously within <br />three of our eight large river basins since 2000. <br /> <br />In the United States alone, over $15 million is spent annually on weather modification operations <br />including snowpack augmentation, rainfall augmentation, and hail suppression. Development <br />and implementation of a coordinated national weather mitigation policy and a cooperative <br />federal-state program fur weather mitigation research and development would be beneficial. <br /> <br />As recommended by a 2003 National Research Council report entitled eritiealIssues in Weather <br />Modification Research, a federally-sponsored weather modification research program is needed <br />and supported by states to develop scientific means for evaluating current programs, as well as <br />increasing their effectiveness through applied research. <br /> <br />Droughts in the United States result in an average economic losses of$6 to 8 billion per year, <br />while severe hail producing storms result in up to $2.3 billion in damage to crops and over $2 <br />billion in property loss annually. Rain enhancement and hail suppression weather modification <br />projects help mitigate these losses. <br /> <br />The seven Colorado River Basin states (Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, <br />Utaht and Wyoming) created cooperative agreements to support locally sponsored wintertime <br />ground-based cloud seeding programs. These agreements pursue water augmentation to the <br />benefit of the entire Colorado River system, which covers approximately one twelfth of the land <br />area of the lower 48 states. Evaluations indicate that a significant yield in runoff can be attained <br />through properly designed cloud seeding projects. A 2006 U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) <br /> <br />Water S.pply Protection · Watenbed Protection Ii: Flood Mitigation · Stream Ii: Lake ProtectIon e Water Supply Pla.niag" fllUIBCe <br />'W.ter Conservation Ii: Drought Plannlage Intrastate Water MllIlqement Ii: DevelopmeDt <br />