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<br />Seeding has been proposed by the Bureau of Reclamation as the most <br />promising means of augmenting the flow of the Colorado River (CREST <br />BriefinC] Document, 1982). Additional water is needed in the Colorado <br />River Basin to meet local demands (population and industrial expansion, <br />recreation, and hydroelectric power generation) and to fulfill a <br />national obligation to provide Mexico with 1.5 million acre-feet of <br />water annually. The Westwide Study Report (1975), which analyzes <br />critical water problems facing 11 western states and compares weather <br />modification to other augmentation measures like importing water, <br />desalting seawater or geothermal brines, and managing vegetation, <br />concludes that "weather modification appears to be the most promising <br />source of new water supply in the Western United States." <br /> <br />Cloud seeding is controversial. First, some scientists are not <br />convinced that it works (Morel-Seytoux, 1977: Katz and Glantz, 1979). <br />Others are convinced, after two decades of experimentation, that it can <br />work--if it is conducted carefully and knowledgeably (Elliott et al., <br />1978: Mielke et al., 1981). The Weather M::>dification Advisory Board <br />(1978:35), charged with assessing weather modification, concluded that <br />"there is strong evidence that snowfall from winter storms over Colorado <br />mountains can be increased by 10-20% provided that seeding can be <br />limited to clouds having certain well-defined characteristics." <br /> <br />Second, the benefits of winter seeding are not distributed <br />uniformly. The people who may suffer adverse effects are, in general, <br />not the ones who enjoy the benefits (Sonka, 1979:31). In Colorado, the <br />dispar i ty is probably most evident in small mountain communi ties whose <br />residents experience the inconvenience of additional snowfall but reap <br />few of the benefits enjoyed downstream by municipal water-users and <br />irrigation interests. The potentially adverse socio-economic impacts of <br />seeding on mountain areas include costs of early-season supplemental <br />feeding of cattle, more avalanches, and inconvenience and threats to the <br />health of the elderly (Rudel, Stockwell and Walsh, 1973: Weisbecker, <br />1974: Farhar and Rinkle, 1976). Another impact often mentioned is the <br />cost of removing snow from highways. <br /> <br />-2- <br />