Finance Committee Meeting 2013 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Non-Reimbursable Project Investment Application- CWCB Construction Fund • Form Revised November 2011 5. Explain why you are requesting a grant, instead of a loan. (the Construction Fund exists primarily to provide low interest loans for the construction or rehabilitation of raw water projects. Non- reimbursable investments are approved only when the project or study is of statewide interest and benefits a wide range of people and organizations, and/or a large geographical area. Cloud Seeding is an issue of statewide and regional interest. It is a low cost program to develop small amounts of additional snow and water. The CWCB is about 17%of the total $1M spent per year. This program is small but popular and has allowed us to share science, funding, and knowledge throughout the Colorado River Basin. Five newer style seeders have replaced older seeding styles and a new large collaboration of seven water districts and four ski areas in the Upper Colorado Region was developed in 2010. Staff believes these programs benefit a wide range of people and organizations and the environment. A focus of staff is better equipment at higher elevations.Updated WM Rules in 2012 require target control evaluations each year and require proposals to sponsors that help evaluate and refine programs. The new rules also suggest several evaluation methods lifted out of the ASCE manuals for cloud seeding. This has led to sponsors asking tough questions and refining their own programs. The Front Range Water Council will spend less on operational seeding and funding a plume modeling study with the National Center for Atmospheric Research to look at their existing generator placement and effectiveness. There are over forty entities that pitch in and pay for cloud seeding each year in Colorado. � I • 6. List the names and addresses of any technical or legal consultants retained to represent the applicant or to conduct investigations for the proposed project or study. Name Address &Phone Number Maria Pastore—Grand River Consulting Glenwood Springs, CO Pam Deems—San Juan Resource Conservation&Development Council Durango, CO Jeff Tilley- Desert Research Institute, Reno,NV Dan Breed—National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO 7. List any feasibility study or scope of work that has been completed or is now in progress for the proposed project or study. (Submit one copy with this application): The Wyoming Water Development Commission is nearing completion of a nine year$14M wintertime cloud seeding experiment and the results are "trending positive"but won't be published until after winter 2013-2014. The results will be statistically significant at high confidence intervals and recommendations from this program will be applied to Colorado's programs. Several previous experiments have demonstrated positive results from seeding programs through research programs sponsored by the USBR and NOAA. Currently there are nine states with operational programs in the western U.S. i t i 4