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<br />Truckee and Carson Rivers to determine the feasibility of augment- <br />ing the inflo\'1 to Pyramid Lake.1I <br />The execution of this mandate called for a cloud seeding pro- <br />ject which would operate in the vicinity of Lake Tahoe during the <br />winter and early spring, since in this region, very little precipi- <br />tation falls in the SUM~er and autumn, the skies being often <br />cloudless. In this respect the required project resembled others <br />which have been conducted in mountainous regions, and which are <br />collectively called "winter orographic projects.1I <br />In several other respects, the Pyramid Project was unusual: <br />1. It was located in an area where several other similar <br />projects were already operating (SMUD, CENSARE and PG&E projects <br />within 100 miles, and a total of six within 150 niles). <br />2. The target area is more densely populated than those in <br />nearly all other winter orographic projects. <br />3. The target area lay on the lee side of the main Sierra <br />Nevada Divide, so that effective seeding required that silver <br />iodide generators be located on the upper western slopes where <br />winter access was difficult because of heavy snow accumulation. <br />The project area, ranging in elevation from about 3040 m <br />(10,000 ft) down to about 1520 m (5,000 ft) was somewhat lower <br />on the average than some other well-known winter orographic <br />projects, such as Climax in the Colorado Rockies. The close <br />proximity of two other similar projects -- conducted by <br />Sacramento Municipal Utilities District (SMUD) to the southwest, <br />and by Fresno State Co11~ge (CENSARE) to the south of Lake <br />Tahoe, indicated that the target area should be restricted to <br />the northern part of the lake and the rollin~ uplands further <br />north which comprise the major part of the effective catchment <br />basin of the Truckee River. The fact that the Lake Tahoe Basin <br />carries a significant population indicated that it would be <br />necessary -to give considerable attention to the safety, environ- <br />mental and public relations aspects of the project. The inacces- <br />sibility of the ground-based aerosol generator sites which in <br /> <br />1-2 <br />