WMOD00304 ‎(2)‎

• Project Name: CREST
• Title: Colorado River Enhanced Snowpack Test
• Date: 1/1/1982
• Weather Modification - Doc Type: Report

THE CREST PROGRAM - - GOING TO THE
SOUR CE

The source of the water within the
Colorado River System originates in
the alpine and subalpine watersheds
of the Rocky Mountains of Wyoming,
Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and
Arizona. Most of the water comes
from snowmelt -- thus, the "source of
the source" of the Colorado River is
snow, and the winter storms that
produce it. CREST was conceived to
go to the source to increase snowpack
in the Colorado River Basins through
winter cloud seeding.

Six major areas in the Colorado River
Basin have been identified as
candidates for snowpack increase
through cloud seeding. Five of the

UPPER GREEN

areas are in the Upper Basin and
naturally produce 75 percent of the
total basin's water supply. These
areas, encompassing about 13,000
square miles, include the mountains
of the Upper Green River in Wyoming,
the Uinta Mountains of Utah, and the
Park Range, Central Colorado, and San
Juan Mountains of Colorado. The
Central Colorado Mountains can be
further subdivided as shown in the
following figures. The Mogollon Rim
region of New Mexico and Arizona has
about 9,600 square miles within the
Lower Basin, and is the sixth major
runoff-producing ar~a.

A fully operational program of cloud
seeding in these areas of the
ColoradO River watershed could add
over 2 million acre-feet of water to
the river each year.

CREST
HIGH W A TER- YIELD AREAS

} PARK RANGE
~ Platte River

""

,

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I
!

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CENTRAL COLORADO
1. WHITE RIVER PLATEAU
2. GRANO MESA
3. UPPER COLORADO
4. GUNNISON

_ High Water. Yield Areas

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