WMOD00277

• Contract/Permit #: 14-06-D-6467
• Title: An Operational Adaptation Program for the Colorado River Basin
• Prepared By: Lewis O. Grant, Chappell, Crow, Mielke Jr., Rasmussen, Shobe, Stockwell, Wykstra
• Date: 10/1/1969
• State: CO
• Country: United States
• Weather Modification - Doc Type: Report

DESIGN OF AN OPER\ TIONAL ADAPTA TION PROGRAM
FOR THE COLORADO RIVER BASIN

Interim Report
for the period
July 1968 - June 1969
Bureau of Reclamation Contract No. l4-06-D-6467

1. INTRODUCTION

This is an annual report of the efforts
at Colorado State University to design a pilot program
for operational weather modification in the Colorado
River Basin. It includes: (1) A brief background
description of the basis and need for a pilot program
of operational weather modification, (2) A descri.ption
of the procedures being followed in developing the
design, and (3) A status report of the various phaBes
of the design efforts.

Operational systems to enhance
precipitation in some areas by 1972 was set as a goal
by the Assistant Secretary of Interior in the November
.1966 Bureau of Reclamation Planning Document for
increasing water yield from atmospheric water
sources. The Colorado River Basin Act passed
in 1968, specifies further the Bureau of Reclamati.on1s
obligation to develop early means of water augmenta-
tion. The 1966 planning document includes an
operational adaptation sequence for accomplishing this
objective. This sequence calls for a progression of
efforts from experimental to pilot and finally to fully
"operational" projects. The term "operational, " for
purposes of the planning document, is used to
describe projects after a useful capability is
achieved and programs are undertaken for obtaining
the benefits of an applied technology. This sequence
of development of weather modification is consistent
with the recommendation of the January 1966 report
'.on weather and climate modification by the National
Academy of Science National Research Council .
One of the panel's recommended first steps was
". . . . the early establishment of several carefully
designed, randomized seeding experiments, planned
'in such a way as to permit the assessment of seed-
ability of various storm types." As outlined by the
Bureau of Reclamation, this could represent an
experimental-type program. In many areas such
experimental programs have and are being
established. In the case of the Upper Colorado River
Basin, such an experimental program was

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established near Clirhax, Colorado, by Colorado
State University ,~1960 with the support of the
National Science Foundation. This project is a
carefully designed, randomized seeding experiment
as recommended by the NAS Committee and permits
assessment of the seedability of a variety of storm
types. Additional experimental projects were
established by the Bureau of Reclamation in the
mid-1960Is. One of these is the program at Elk
Mountain in Southern Wyoming being carried out by
the University of Wyoming. Another such program
1m been carried out by Bollay Associates over the
Park Range in northwestern Colorado. The results
from such experimental-type programs form the
basis for progressing into pilot-type programs of
operational adaptation envisioned in the operational
adaptation sequence presented in the planning docu-
ment. Results of a pilot-type project, initiated by
the state of Colorado through Colorado State University,
to :3,g:3,pt i'iom~ nf the results from Clirn;;J~ to th€l San
Juan Mountains of southern Colorado are also
available to provide background information.

The development of pilot projects,
once the results of experimental projects became
available, was also outlined in the planning document
(1966). This called for preliminary studies for the
design of field network requirements, procedures
for seeding operation and techniques for evaluation.
Preliminary studies to form the basis for pilot
projects have been carried out by the internal staff
of the Office of Atmospheric Water Resources at the
Bureau of Reclamation. This annual report describes
the contracted efforts by Colorado State University
to prepare a specific design for pilot projects within
the Basin.

Early phases of the design study were
directed toward (1) the selection of an area for the
initial pilot project, and (2) the determination of the
basic requirements for an observing network. The