Weather Mod Report - 1977

• Project Type: General OWC
• Project Name: Weather Modification
• Title: "What Should Colorado Be Doing in Weather Modification"
• Date: 11/9/1977
• County: Statewide
• Water Conservation - Doc Type: Final Report

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coveT the liability risks with its umbTella. And it can lift the issue
of rights to the augmented water to the level of the general welfare,
which is keeping with the multiplier effect of incremental water values
on neaTly all otheT economic producers in the State. The State can
also surmount the obstacles raised on the one hand by the absence of an
established Federal policy and the apparent difficulty of establishing
one, and on the other hand by the weakness of more local interests in
tackling actions that by their nature are best carried forward on a
regional basis.

So, in summary, what should Colorado do about precipitation management?

1. Colorado should recognize precipitation management as a valuable
opportunity if it is taken advantage of and as a mounting problem if it
is not.

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2. The Administration should undertake staff studies that will plot
the cumulative course of water famine and determine decision points
along it for remedial action, including precipitation management.

3. The Administration should recommend comprehensive legislative
authorization and funding for a standby program that can be put into
effect promptly whenever the appropriate decision point is reached.

~ Colorado should provide for competent, impartial assessment of the
outcome of all precipitation-management activities carried out within
the State. This assessment should focus on decisionmaking aspects
from the viewpoint of the general welfare and avoid bogging down i~
scientific controversies. ~

5. The Administration should recommend as part of the legislative
authorization, a legislative basis for compensating citizens who
are disbenefitted in certain recognizable ways by precipitation-manage-
ment actions taken for the sake of the general welfare and provide
the administrative machinery for settling claims of this nature.

Though I am here only as an individual and not as a representative of my
employer, the Bureau of Reclamation, I cannot refrain from mentioning
the impact of what Colorado does on the Colorado River Augmentation
Demonstration Project which Project Skywater now has in the initial
planning phase. This project, if it is not killed, will directly affect
all the Upper Basin states and should logically develop as a cooperative
program among them and the Federal government.

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