WMOD00566

• Title: Snowpack Augmentation in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado
• Date: 1/1/1989
• State: CO
• Country: United States
• Weather Modification - Doc Type: Report

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Introduction

The Rocky Mountains, garbed in their majestic snows for most of the year, store
water for half a continent. To scientists seeking ways to augment water supplies
in the western United States by enhancing natural precipitation, they and the
atmosphere above them represent a vast natural resource. Their allure is only
increased by the fact that they arEl relatively sparsely populated.

Motivating federal government scientists to augment water flowing in the Colorado
River Basin is the fact that the United States, owing to the Colorado River
Compact, must send to Mexico. 1.5 million acre-feet of high~qualitywater each
year. I Frequently the United States cannot meet its Compact obligations while
preserving the water rights of 'users in the mountainous Upper and populous Lower
Basin States" It is no wonder that scientists looked to the Upper Basin States
for sites to conduct orographic cloud seeding experiments.

In addition to these political realities, climatology and other considerations make
the San Juan Mountains of Southwestern Colorado prime candidates for cloud seed-
ing experimentation. First, the Colorado River Basin Pilot Project (CRBPP or Pilot
Project) was conducted in the area;2 next, operational snowpack augmentation went
on for a decade; and finally, th,e U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has proposed the area
for a future federal cloud seeding demonstration project called the Colorado River
Enhanced Snowpack Test (CREST).3,4 Therefore, federal scientific interest in
. pursuing weather modification potential in Colorado's San Juan Mountains is likely
to continue in the decades ahead.

While studies have focused not only on the effects of cloud seeding on snowpack
and runoff, but also on such impacts as effects of increased snow on flora and
fauna, avalanche occurrence, andl highway snow reinoval costs, very little' is known
about community response to sIlowpack augmentation in the San Juan area. One
early study was' a technology assessment of winter orographic snowpack augmenta-
tion (WOSA).S This technology assessment reviewed the. economic, social, and
environmental impacts of WOSA a.Ild concluded .

The environmental, economic, and social impacts of WOSA on the high
mountain areas . . .. are, almost uniformly negative, but are of only
moderate intensity.

There is no need for the additional water provided by the WOSA system
in the high mountain are:ilS that would bear these negative impacts for'
the benefit of other areas . . . . There appear to be sufficient
benefits from the WOSA water increment . that the drawbacks to. the
target area residents could be offset by a program of alleviation and
compensations, providing that the necessary institutional arrangements
can be made.6

*Upper Basin states include Colo~rado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico. Lower
Basin states are Arizona, Cillifornia, and Nevada.

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