WMOD00297 ‎(2)‎

• Project Name: Project Skywater
• Title: Project Skywater - Fiscal Years 1975-78 Report
• Prepared By: US Department of Interior Bureau of Reclaimation
• Date: 3/1/1979
• Weather Modification - Doc Type: Report

Design Workshop were held. At the Skywater IX Conference in November
1976, more than 60 natural, chemical, and social scientists consid-
ered "Precipitation Management and the EnvironmenL" The participants
surveyed past research into the environmental and social implications
of cloud seeding to determine the knowledge currently available.
They identified several areas for additional study, but also said
that in some fields, environmental monitoring would be sufficient to
identify effects of seeding, if they occur.

In December 1977, the HIPLEX Design Workshop assessed the scientific
basis for initiating a randomized cloud seeding experiment on warm.,
season convective clouds. The consensus of the 60 atmospheric
scientists at the workshop was that current knowledge of cloud and
precipitation processes in moderate-sized convective clouds in
Montana and the ability to measure the effects of seeding were
sufficient to permit the start of a field experiment in 1979. The
workshop also identified some details for resolution before the
final design was completed. The 1978 Montana field activity concen-
trated on these items.

At the Skywater X Conference in June 1978, more than 90 scientists,
concerned citizens, and representatives of state and local groups
gathered to evaluate the Sierra Cooperative Pilot Project Proposed
Design. Conference participants indicated a genera"l acceptance of
the project on scientific, environmental, and social grounds.
Conference discussions and the recommendations of the special work-
shops on Tracing, Extended Area of Effects, and Hypotheses will be
added to the results of the first three phases of the project to
produce a final design prior to the project exploratory phase.

The programmatic Project Skywater Final Environmental Statement
(INT-FES 77-39) was filed with the Council on Environmental Quality,
October 25,1977. The statement is based on continuing environmental
research initiated by the Office of Atmospheric Resources Management
in 1964, more than 4 years before the Nat"ional Environmental Policy
Act became law. It examines the effect that cloud seeding may have
if the technology is applied over long periods of time.

The 1978 report 1/ to the Secretary of Commerce from the Weather
Modification Advlsory Board states: liThe key conclusion in this

1/ liThe Management of Weather Resources, Volume I, Proposals for a
National Policy and Program, II A Report to the Secretary of Commerce
from the Weather Modification Advisory Board, Department of Commerce,
Washington, D.C., June 1978.

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