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Water Project Construction Program- Project Data Non-Reimbursable Investment Grantee: Colorado Water Conservation Board County: Statewide Project Name: Weather Modification-Water User Cost Share Assistance Project Type: Grants for operations, grants for optimization of permitted cloud seeding programs Drainage Basin: San Juan, Gunnison,Colorado Water Source:N/A Total Project Cost: $850,000 (Annual Total Avg.) Funding Source: CWCB Const.Fund Type of Grantee: Local Governments/Water Districts CWCB Non-Reimbursable Inv.: $175,000 SUMMARY The CWCB has been permitting weather modification programs since 1972. Drought and water supply issues have led to more wintertime cloud seeding programs to address snowpack, water supply 2011 Colorado Cloud Seeding Tar0et Areas and stream low issues. There are currently active programs at: Vail/Beaver ' r Creek Ski Area,Denver Water&Winter Park,Gunnison River Basin, '= s 1= Telluride,Western San Juan Mountains and Eastern San Juan Mountains. The CWCB also enforces criteria set on avalanche hazard levels at mountain 1,41 ..� passes and thresholds on snow water equivalent measured at the 110 NRCS / .E« SNOTEL sites in Colorado.The map shows cloud seeding ice nuclei 1 generators as black triangles and the targeted areas as colored shapes. r - I � The CWCB has had grants since 2004.Agreements were signed with water , users in Arizona,Nevada,and California in 2007 for additional grants to local winter cloud seeding programs. The provisions of these agreements are that more water benefits he system,the water generated is non assignable and non attributable and is system water subject to water rights, and compacts. Collectively these entities are known as the Lower Basin.The Lower Basin agreement has no expiration date but annual exhibits signed by Director Gimbel sign funding and activities into action each year. A similar agreement was signed with the State of New Mexico. Since 2006 approximately$2.7M has been spent by local entities in Colorado(ski areas,water districts), $810,000 by state entities through the CWCB,and$718,000 by out-of- state water agencies. The focus of the CWCB staff was outlined in a 2008 Board Member approved strategic plan as a balance of grants to operations,assistance with modern equipment, and evaluations. The CWCB funding has done much to help develop Colorado's programs. Examples are: a Liquid(alchoholized)propane seeding unit on the Grand Mesa which works at warmer temperatures than silver thus expanding the window of opportunity for seeded events and two Colorado owned and operated remote control high output AgI Ice nuclei generators on Mancos Mountain in the San Juan Mountains and another one above the Cedaredge Water Treatment Plant. Both of those machines average 27grams of Silver Iodide output per hour and traditional Colorado machines average 6 grams/hour making them over four times more effective at releasing the material. The other benefit of these machines is they are not manual operated and with cell comms. can be placed at high elevations increasing the effectiveness of getting material in cloud. The goal is to get 2/3 up the mountain crest and use lower level steering winds to ramp material up into cloud base for more effective cloud seeding. Evaluations have shown that seeding material can be trapped when sited in mountain valleys. The funding also developed specialized weather stations with icing sensors that guide seed and no seed decisions and are used in evaluations on:the Grand Mesa, Winter Park,Purgatory, and Telluride Ski Resort is schedule for fall 2011. Three research grade precipitation gauges were purchased and will be deployed at Purgatory,Telluride,and the Grand Mesa. These precipitation gauges are useful by detecting precise snowfall rates during seeded and non seeded snowfall events. Recent Developments On August 2nd Denver Water put together a broad based partnership that is a multi-year$300K/year cloud seeding program that involves the Front Range Water Council members,Keystone,Breckenridge,Arapahoe Basin,and Winter Park and they are hoping for assistance from the Lower Basin and the CWCB.The sustained CWCB and Lower Basin funding and modern methods were appealing and led to the Denver Water initiative in the Upper Colorado River Basin.