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<br />Reclamation States Emergencv Drought Relief Act of 1991. The Reclamation States <br />Emergency Drought Relief Act of 1991 (Public Law 102-250) authorized the Secretary <br />"to conduct a Precipitation Management Technology Transfer Program to help alleviate <br />problems caused by precipitation variability and droughts in the West, as part of a <br />balanced long-term water resources development and management program." Section <br />206(b) states that "in consultation with State, Tribal, and local water, hydropower, water <br />quality and in stream flow interests, areas shall be selected for conducting field studies... <br />to validate and quantify the potential for appropriate precipitation management <br />technology to augment stream flows." Upon successful completion of such a program, <br />validated technologies will be ''transferred to nonFederal [sic] interests for operational <br />implementation." The 1991 Act was the authorizing legislation for the Weather Damage <br />Modification Program, described in a subsequent section. <br /> <br />Weather Modification Research and Technologv Transfer Authorization Act (S. 517) <br />K.B. Hutchison. (R-Texas). On March 3, 2005, Senator Hutchinson re-introduced a bill <br />that is identical to the weather modification bill she introduced in the last Congress. The <br />Act would develop and implement a comprehensive and coordinated national weather <br />modification policy and a national coopemtive Federal and State program of weather <br />modification research and development. The work would be accomplished through the <br />Department of Commerce Weather Modification and Advisory Research Board. The <br />duties include promotion of research and development, providing financial assistance, <br />and biennial reporting. The legislation would authorize $10 million for 10 fiscal years. <br />There has been no movement on the bill since its introduction, and her staff is working to <br />get at least some of the provisions of this bill incorporated into the Senate's version of a <br />NOAA authorization bill, which is again making its way through the legislative process. <br />A copy of the bill may be found in Appendix A. <br /> <br />Weather Modification Research and Technologv Transfer Authorization Act of 2005 <br />(HR. 2995). On June 20, 2005, Rep. Udall (D-Colomdo) introduced this companion bill <br />to S. 517, which also seeks to develop and implement a comprehensive and coordinated <br />national weather modification policy and a national cooperative Federal and State <br />program of weather modification research and development. The House and Senate bills <br />are nearly identical. <br /> <br />The Primary Winter Cloud and Precipitation Process <br /> <br />Because there is strong evidence that wintertime seeding for snowpack augmentation <br />works and because the high mountains in the Colorado River Basin provide excellent <br />seeding targets, only winter seeding will be addressed here. In general terms, winter <br />cloud seeding attempts to mimic natural snow production processes in clouds that are <br />inefficient in producing ice crystals and snowfall. During winter storms, moist air is <br />forced to ascend over mountain ranges by prevailing winds (orographic ascent). This <br />upward movement causes the air to cool. The rising and cooling of moist air results in <br />water vapor condensing into droplets to form a cloud. The mte of production of liquid <br />water is determined by the air's temperature, humidity, and upward motion. The tiny <br />cloud water droplets have insignificant fall speeds so they are suspended in the airstream. <br />If not converted to snowflakes while continuing to rise over the mountain, the droplets <br /> <br />-4- <br />