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<br />FINDING OF NO SIGNIFICANT IMPACT <br /> <br />Colorado River Augmentation Demonstration Program <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />Bureau of Reclamation <br />Division of Atmospheric Resources Research <br />Engineering and Research Center <br />Denver, Colorado <br /> <br />DARB FONSI 85-1 <br /> <br />~ <br /> <br />The Colorado River Augmentation Demonstration Program is a research <br />program that will obtain basic (~limatological and cloud physics data to <br />improve the understanding of the potential of cloud seeding as a water <br />resource management option in the Upper Colorado River Basin. The <br />program is to be carried out on Grand Mesa, which is located in west- <br />central Colorado in part of Mesa, Delta, and Gunnison Counties. The <br />Bureau of Reclamation has conducted winter climatological studies on <br />Grand Mesa since January of 1983, and now proposes to continue the <br />climatological data collection and begin studies of cloud seeding <br />effects. <br /> <br />The level of cloud seeding proposed is limited in extent and duration, <br />for a research program and not for the primary purpose of increasing the <br />snowpack. For the first of the studies to be initiated this year, <br />silver iodide (AgI) will be released either from an aircraft or from <br />ground-based generators, with subsequent tracing of the AgI plume using <br />a specially instrumented aircraft and equipment on the ground. Much of <br />this release of AgI will take place when no clouds are present because <br />the purpose of this part of the program is to monitor the dispersion of <br />the seeding agent. During non-storm conditions the aircraft can fly <br />closer to the ground, which will allow obtaining data closer to the sur- <br />face than with in-cloud conditions. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />In the second part of the new studies, the microphysical changes that <br />particular modes of seeding cause in clouds will be studied. AgI or <br />carbon dioxide (C02) will be released in clouds. The specially equipped <br />aircraft will be used to measure in-cloud changes. Precipitation will <br />be measured, with the aid of high resolution precipitation gages, atop <br />Grand Mesa in the limited zone where seeding-induced snowfall might <br />reach the surface. Other ground-based equipment will be capable of <br />