Weather Mod - Controlling Activites Report

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COMMITTEE FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS The Committee on Weather Modification was established by action of the Legislative Council on June 28, 1971, under the provisions of section 63-4-3, C.R.S. 1963, which author- izes the Council, in part, to "...consider important issues of public policy and state-wide interest...". The minutes of that meeting show that the Committee was established because portions of the San Luis Valley were experiencing a severe drought, and residents, rightly or wrongly, placed the blame on the hail suppression project in the Valley. A group of citizens in the San Luis Valley had formed a committee called the San Luis Valley Citizens Concerned About Weather Modification. This group of concerned citizens had planned a meeting with the Governor and had threatened a court bat- tle to enjoin the hail suppression program. Because of the controversy surrounding the program and the apparent inef- fectiveness of the existing weather modification control statute, the Council agreed that an examination of the situ- ation by a committee was in order. Existinq Colorado Law Colorado currently has a weather modification control statute -- 151-1-1 et seq., C.R.S. 1963 -- which requires anyone conducting a weather modification project to obtain a license. The current statute is administered by the Depart- ment of Natural Resources and the Director of that department is granted the power to establish rules, regulations, and practices reasonably necessary to effectuate the law. After reviewing this statute, the Committee found it to be inade- quate. It is essentially a licensing law. Even though the Director is empowered to establish necessary rules and regula- tions, such references appear to apply largely to individual license requirements and not to project approval or rejection. Furthermore, if a person meets the requirements for licensure, and conducts his operation within the limits of that license, the law provides no clear guidelines or authority for regula- tion of the conduct of his operation. Thus, once a license is granted,~s long as the licen- see's project is conducted under any terms established when the license was issued, the Committee found that the Director is, in reality, powerless to take any administrative action to stop or alter the program. Of course, court actions could be initiated to stop the program but these could be lengthy processes which might not provide the immediate type of ac- tion needed in emergency or questionable situations.