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<br />.' <br /> <br />.,. <br /> <br />'. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />8. Appraise the Risk that the Proposed Proiect Could Cause Substantial Harm to Land. <br />Water. People. Health, Safetv, Propertv and the Environment. <br /> <br />The Denver office of the Bureau of Reclamation conducted a number ofresearch <br />programs in weather modification under their "Project Skywater" program. This program was <br />active from the 1960's to the 1990's. As part of this program, a number of environmental studies <br />were conducted. Results of some of these studies included: the Medicine Bow Ecology Project <br />(Knight, et at, 1975), San Juan Ecology Project (Steinhoff and Ives, 1976), Uinta Ecology <br />Project (Harper, 1981), and the Sierra Ecology Project (Berg and Smith, 1980; Berg, 1988). The <br />potential impacts of artificial ice-nucleating agents (which included silver iodide) was conducted <br />by Klein, 1978. A technological assessment of winter snowpack augmentation in the Upper <br />Colorado River Basin was reported on by Weisbecker, 1974. <br />The American Society of Civil Engineers, Manual 81, Guidelines for Cloud Seeding to <br />Augment Precipitation (ASCE, 1995) contains a chapter entitled "Economic, Environmental, and <br />Societal Aspects of Precipitation Enhancement by Cloud Seeding. The following is a quote from <br />this report which summarizes the results of these research efforts, "The essence ofthe results is <br />that changes that might be expected in the environmental factors (i) were most often subtle, nil, <br />or indiscernible in relation to other natural influences (e.g., effects of fire or insects on forest <br />vegetation); (ii) would be of the same type and magnitude as would result from a sustained <br />increase of a corresponding percent in natural precipitation (e.g., as a gradual change in herb <br />species composition might occur in a wetter climate); might be beneficial as often as not and <br />depending on point of view (e.g., as when fish habitat increases with lake level); and (iv) would <br />have net incomes that strongly affect ecosystem management practices (e.g., as when increased <br />weed growth and grassland productivity occur together)". This report continues, "During the <br />1970's, the most common seeding agents, chemical complexes of silver iodide, were examined <br />for ecological effects (Copper and Jolly, 1970; Klein, 1978); conclusions from those studies <br />point to little or no effects on terrestrial or aquatic biological communities, either immediately or <br />after many, many years of silver or iodide application in the small dosages possible from cloud <br />seeding". <br />In summary, no significant environmental impacts are expected from the conduct of the <br />Gunnison County project. <br /> <br />9. Describe the Safee:uards to be Used bv the Operator to Prevent Substantial Harm to <br />Land, Water, People. Health. Safetv, Propertv and the Environment <br /> <br />In accordance with the Weather Modification Association's "Standards for Conduct of <br />Individual Projects", North American Weather consultants (NA We) developed Policies and <br />Procedures for the Suspension of Cloud Seeding Operations. These criteria have been utilized in <br />the conduct of numerous previous winter orographic seeding projects conducted in the Inter- <br />Mountain West. These criteria will be used in the conduct of the Gunnison County Project. <br />These criteria are as follows: <br /> <br />10 <br />