WMOD00592

• Project Name: Project Skywater
• Title: Project Skywater - Final Environmental Statement - Volume I
• Date: 1/1/1977
• Weather Modification - Doc Type: Report

CK~PTER 1

DESCRIPTIOX OF THE PROGR~~

1. Proposed Action

The proposed action covered by this Environmental Statement is the
continuation of Project Skywater, a program of research and develop-
ment in the management of precipitation through weather modification.
This is a programmatic statement describing the project as a whole,
including its current and planned field activities, and their envi-
ronmental impacts and implications. Supplements or additional
Environmental Statements will be considered for major future field
activities that exceed the scope of those described here.

1.1. Purpose of the proposed action. - The mission of the Bureau
of Reclamation's Project Skywater is to develop a technology of
precipitation management that is scientifically sound, effective,
and socially acceptable, and to assist in the transfer of this
technology to users. It is one of a number of research and devel-
opment activities undertaken at the Federal level in response to
the need for expansion of the Nation's water resources to meet
predicted end of the century requirements.

1.2. Scope of the proposed action. - Project Sk}~ater embodies
that part of the Federal research effort in weather modification
that has the specific mission of applied research and develop-
ment directed toward management of precipitation. It comple-
ments related basic research of the National Science Foundation
and the mission-oriented activities of the ~ational Oceano-
graphic and Atmospheric Administration (modification of hurri-
canes) and the Departments of Defense and Transportation
(dissipation of fog).

At its present and projected near future level of activity, Proj-
ect Skywater is pursuing two main lines of investigation. One con-
cerns augmentation of winter snowpack on the high mountain ranges
of the Western United States, and comprises one proposed field
program in an early stage of planning, and one plan for a pilot
project currently in a state of suspension. The second line of
investigation concerns augmentation of suw~ertime convective rain-
fall over the western Great Plains, and comprises a single experi-
mental program designated the High Plains Cooperative Program
(HIPLEX). These field operations are supplemented by theoretical
and laboratory studies, and by studies of economic, environmental,
and sociological aspects associated with potential applications of

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