WMOD00394

• Contract/Permit #: 14-06-D-6467
• Project Name: Weather Modification Pilot Project
• Title: Weather Modification - A Pilot Project - San Juan Mountains, Colorado River Basin - Final Report
• Date: 2/1/1974
• Weather Modification - Doc Type: Report

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Pilot projects were envisioned as a main focus of the Skywater Program
to furnish technical and environmental data and to test operational
systems, procedures, and techniques evolved from prior research. The
delineation of environmental problems and the determination of benefit-
cost effectiveness were planned as additional key aspects of pilot
project,s. The work to design such a pilot proJect of weather modifica-
tion for the Colorado River Basin was initiated in 1968. It continued
concurrently with the various field programs of weather modification
research during the late 1960's. It was originally intended that a
pilot project would be initiated starting in the fall of 1971. Since
the Colorado River Basin Act (1968) specified a final report to Congress
by 1977 reporting on various reconnaissance type investigations for
increasing water yields of the Colorado River Basin, the Pilot Project
was actually initiated in the fall of 1970. The basic aspects of the
design and the preparation for field operation were completed by that
time (Grant, 1970; Grant, 1970; Bureau of Reclamation, 1970; Hurley,
1972). This report describes the design that was developed for
the Colorado River Basin Pilot Project prior to its initiation.

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II. PURPOSE OF THE''''SAN JUAN PILOT PROJECT

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The purpose of the Pilot Project of weather modification for the Colorado
River Basin has been stated in a number of ways. This reflects
the multiple specific goals of the proj ect. Clearly, the overa.ll goal
of the Pilot Project is to provide a supportable basis for the Bureau
of Reclamation to recommend or not recommend an operational cloud
seeding program as required by the Colorado River Basin Act of 1968.
Within this framework the objective includes scientific, economic,
management, ecological, social, and political considerations. These
are reflected in objectives that have at various times been stated
in the following ways.

1. A proj ect ". . . to add basic information to the sciences of
cloud physics and weather modification, and advance technology
pertinent to the operational aspects of weather modifica-
tion for increasing water supplies within the Basin".
(Objective as stated in the contract between the Bureau of
Reclamation and Colorado State University for the prepara-
tion of the design.)

2. A project :1. . . to provide sound scientific and engineering
evaluation of precipitation increases over a large area by
operational-type application of cloud seeding techniques
employed and criteria developed through the Climax Colorado
experiment. The evaluation and analyses of project data also
furnish a more detailed climatology of natural precipitation
occurrences over mountainous areas, improved identification
of precipitation increase during different seedable conditions
and its distributions over large mountain masses, and an
accounting of costs involved. The Project will also afford
the first major opportunity for assessing social-environmental
problems a~sociated with weather modification operations and
for appraising technical performance factors".

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