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<br />B. What is the Impact of Cloud Seeding on California's Water and <br />Energy Situation? <br /> <br />1. Relevance and Need <br /> <br />California recently suffered an energy crisis, and predictions arc that such crises will be repeated <br />unless significant preventative steps are taken. By the early 1990s, electricity rates in California <br />were on average 50 percent higher than the rest of the U.S. In 1995, the state legislature <br />unanimously passed a bill to open the power industry to competition, but consumers paid almost <br />twice the rate they did before deregulation. and experienced rolling blackouts I. The supply and <br />delivery of electric power in and around California are affected by economic, political, physical <br />delivery factors. The hydroelectric sector has been adversely impacted by several years of below <br />nomlal precipitation. In California on average, 15% of electrical power is derived from <br />hydroelectric generation2 and it is the cheapest source of power in the stale. The ability of <br />hydroelectric power companies to produce power to meet thc needs of California and othcr <br />western states is heavily dependent on snowpack runoff from the Sierra Nevada and other <br />mountain ranges (primarily those whose snO\\:pack feeds the Columbia and Colorado Rivers). <br />'111e majority of precipitation that feeds Western hydrological reserves (mainly reservoirs) occurs <br />during the cool season, in the foml of snowfall. Fresh water from ~nowpack melt is also critical <br />lor agriculture, recreation. municipal and indu~trial water users. wildlife and tish habitat, and <br />......ater quality. <br /> <br />California already experiences fresh water shortages in dry years. Several recent studies project <br />inadequate supplies even in normal years of the near future, primarily because of increa~ing <br />demands. The Association of California Water Agencies"' predicts that the slate will be <br />chronically short of water by 20 I 0, unless steps are taken no..\' to improve its water supply <br />system. The director of the California DeRartment of Water Resources (DWR) recently said that <br />the state will need at least two million acre. feet of water each year by 2030 to meet the demands <br />of a growing population4. Similarly. the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) Water 2025 <br />programS states that consumptive use of water in the West continues to grow rapidly, largely <br />because of sustained urban growth. This situation ha~ already caused major ......ater conflicts, even <br />during nomml water supply (non4drought) periods, and is expected to worsen unless significant <br />action is taken. The Water 2025 expected conflict areas are shown by Figure I. ~Iuch of the <br />water supply in southern California comes from the Colorado River, whose basin was in a <br />drought from 1999 to 2005. Lake Powell, ,,\'hich serves as a water bank during drought, had <br />April ZOOS reservoir storage at 33 percent of capacity. This was the lowest the lake had becn <br />since 19696. Unfortunately, drought is a nomlal part of the climate cycle in the arid West, and <br />research has shown that far more severe and lengthy droughts have occurred than the one of the <br />I' 7 <br />ast SIX years . <br /> <br />Perhaps more disturbingly. there havc been widespread declines in western North Amcrica's <br />April ISl mountain snowpad since mid4century8. The authors of this investigation point to <br />sc,,'cral climate studics suggesting that this trend will continue and even accelerate. The ski <br /> <br />5 <br />