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<br /> <br />c <br /> <br />North American Interstate Weather Modification Council <br /> <br />www.nalwmc.org <br /> <br />"Facilitating the exchange of interstate/interprovincial atmospheric <br />resource management information." <br /> <br />Memorandum <br /> <br />To: Western Governors Association <br />From: North American Interstate Weather Modification Council <br />Rc: Common interest in weather modification in the western u.s. <br /> <br />The North American Interstate Weather Modification Council (NAIWMC) is a non-profit, tax- <br />exempt organization of regulatory agencies, sponsoring organizations, and research institutions involved <br />in atmospheric water resource management technology, commonly kno\lm as weather moditication or <br />cloud seeding. The NAIWMC exists to facilitate the free exchange of information rc~rding cloud seeding <br />research and operations in North America. The current membership of the Council includes <br />representatives from North Dakota. Kansas, Oklahoma. Texas. Colorado. Wyoming, Utah. Nevada and <br />California. all stales which have active operational weather moditiC:l1ion programs. <br /> <br />The NAIWMC has actively sought coopcrative <tisistance from federal agencies. most recently the <br />Bureau of Reclamation. to develop research programs for the benctit of operational state projects. The <br />NAIWMC has outlined a Weathcr Damage Modification Program (WD~1P) that promotes the use of <br />weather moditication technologies to mitigate the effects of natural disasters sllch as drought and <br />damaging hailstorms. Such technologies arc currently employed operationally thrmghout the West to <br />augment snowfall, enhance summer rainfall and suppress the fonnation of hail. The NAIWMC has given <br />support to the bill recently introduced by U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Ilutchison (S. 517, the Weather <br />Modification Technology Transfer Act) which seeks to develop a national \vealher moditication board and <br />policy. We believe cooperative federal assistance programs such as these can be of great benefit to states <br />that currently spend at least $15 million annually on operational programs. but that have very little funding <br />leverage to support research for scicntific and technological advances. <br /> <br />Wc support the rcrommendation of the Colorado Water Con~rvation Board that the WGA discuss <br />the issues of\'ieather moditication and its application to waler management and weather related disasters <br />throughout the West at one of its upcoming meetings. Many NAIWMC members are either within. or very <br />closely associatcd \vith. the watcr agencies of their respective states. This \....ill make the transfer of <br />pertinent infonnation on wcather moditication 10 governors' statTmcmbers rclativelyeasy. We look <br />forv..ard to thc opportunity to explore these common probh:ms and ultimately to develop solutions for thc <br />good of all the \\'~tern states. <br /> <br />Arlen Huggins <br />Desert Research Institute, Reno. NV <br />Arlen.Huggins@drLedu <br />NAIWMC Chair <br /> <br />Joe Busto <br />Colorado Water Conservation Board, Denver, CO <br />Joe.Busto@dwr.stale.co.us <br />NAIWMC Vice Chair <br />