WMOD00593

• Contract/Permit #: 14-06-D-7052
• Title: Ecological Impacts of Snowpack Augmentation in the San Juan Mountains, Colorado
• Date: 3/1/1976
• State: CO
• Weather Modification - Doc Type: Report

+1

Weakly
beneficial

c

Indifferent

-1

Weakly
harmful

-2

Moderately
harmful

-3

Strongly
harmful

The environmental component is
usually in a state of relative
indifference to precipitation
management, in which both benefi-
cial and harmful impacts are
relatively slight. but there is a
significant frequency of
occasions when beneficial impacts
occur. Or, beneficial impacts may
be more frequent than harmful
effects, but these impacts are
relatively inconsequential.

Impacts of precipitation manage-
ment on the environmental component
are so weak or so disturbed by
other factors that precipitation
management has no systematic impact
of consequence, either beneficial
or harmful, though there may be
occasions in a given setting when
temporary or particular effects,
either beneficial or harmful,
may become apparent.

The environmental component is
usually in a state of relative
indifference to precipitation
management in which both beneficial
and harmful impacts are relatively
slight, but there is a significant
frequency of occasions when harm-
ful impacts occur. Or, harmful
impacts may be more frequent than
beneficial impacts, but these are
relatively inconsequential.

Precipitation management frequent-
ly causes a significant amount of
harmful change in the environmental
component, but there also may be
frequent times when the harm is
inconsequential, or there may be
infrequent times when it is sig~
nificantly harmful. The regular
application of precipitation
management would do the environ-
mental component, on the whole,
more harm than good. In a given
setting, the environmental
component is in a situation to
suffer harm from precipitation
management more than 50 percent
of the time, and harmful impacts
are in general stronger than
beneficial ones.

Precipitation management nearly
always has a harmful impact on
the environmental component. In
a given setting, the environmental
component is in a situation to
suffer harm from precipitation
management more than 80 percent
of the time. Situations where
impact would be beneficial are
infrequent and relatively incon-
sequential.

The third tabulated characteristic is the strength
of the relationship between the environmental
component being considered as a receptor of an
impact of precipitation management and the quality
of the environment as a whole. The environmental
quality, considered in the broad sense, is the cen-

tral concern of the environmental impact statement.
The quality of the environment as a whole has been
considered in the framework of the geographical
limits of the expected area of primary effect of a
particular experimental field program, or of 'a
particular operational program of the type that may
be reasonably anticipated if application of the
technology were to become widespread or prolonged.

The relationship is strongest for those components
that are in a position to affect a broad spectrum
of other components. Producers in an ecosystem
occupy such a position. Vegetation, for example,
affects herbivores which, in turn, affect predators,
so that the effects spread widely and strongly.
By comparison, an impact on reptiles as a class
has relatively few and weak interactions with other
components that reflect upon the quality of the
environment as a whole. The particular definitions
used are:

o

Ineffectual

Very weak

2

Moderately
weak

3

Moderately
strong

4

Very strong

The effect of the environmental
component on other components
and on the quality of the environ-
ment as a whole is so weak or
disturbed that the relationship
is not apparent or ordinarily
discernible, or the portion of the
environmental component subject to
impact of precipitation manage-
ment is so local in character
as to be ineffectual on environ-
mental quality.

The relationship of the environ-
mental component to the quality
of the enviro~ment as a whole
can be traced with a significant
degree of correlation, so that a
confident prediction of tendency
can be made. However, the quan-
titative magnitude of the effect
is too small, or too confused with
other factors or environmental
components, for a useful quan-
titative estimate of impact to be
made.

The relationship between the
environmental component and the
quality of the environment as a
whole is identifiable and
measurable, but its effect is
definitely subordinate to those
of other factors that play a role
in determining changes in environ-
mental quality.

The environmental component is
one of several factors that are,
more or less, coequal and to-
gether play a dominant role in
determining the quality of the
environment as a whole.

I
I
1
j

The environmental component is the
foremost factor in determining
changes in the quality of the
environment as a whole.

The fourth tabulated characteristic expresses the
outcome of the preceding three. It is an estimate
of the impact on the quality of the environment
as a whole as this is mediated by the impact on the
particular environmental component under consider-

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