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<br />rights in each area according to the regulations in these four states. There is a requirement to <br />report cloud seeding activities to the National Oceanic and atmospheric Administration. <br />Installation of ground-based equipment (e.g.. rcmotely controlled silvcr iodide ground <br />generators) on federaJlands would require the issuance of special use pennits and potentially the <br />preparation of Environmental Assessments or Environmental Impact Statements. The preparation <br />or sllch documents can be time consuming and costly. <br /> <br />18.0 Conclusions and Recommendations <br /> <br />18.1 Conclusions <br /> <br />Cloud seeding ovcr mountain areas in wintertime is an established technology. A large <br />number of programs are conducted each \vintcr throughout many parts of the world. including <br />thc western United States. Some of the United States programs. conducted in the Sierra Nevada <br />i\-lountains of California. have been operated nearly continuously for periods of 40~55 years. <br />There are a number of programs being conducted in Intermountain West drainages that are <br />tributary to thc upper Colorado River. Evaluations of research and operational programs indicatc <br />increases in precipitation in the range of5-15% from well dcsigned and executed programs. <br />Capability statements from sevcral profcssional societics indicatc a\'erage increases in <br />precipitation of 10% are reasonable. When a 10% increasc in April 1M snow water content was <br />applied to average snow watcr contents in the existing and potential ncw cloud seeding areas in <br />the Upper Colorado Rivcr Basin. hydrologic modcling (conducteu by the National Wcather <br />Service River Forccast Center in Salt Lake City) indicated that an a\'Cra[!e 1.227.004 additional <br />acre fcet or runofT may be added to upper Colorado Rivcr nows for the period of April through <br />December. It is estimated an additional 154.000 acre feet of water could bc produced by ne\v <br />sceding programs in Arizona amounting to a total of 1,381,004 acre feet. The l'stimated cost of <br />pl"Oducing this augmented stream now is S6,965,OOO or S5.04 per acre foot. Larger volumcs <br />of runoff would occur in above normal \vater years and smaller volumes in drier than nonnal <br />\\'atcr years. No significant negative environmental effects arc cxpected to be associated with <br />thcse cloud sceding activities. <br /> <br />18.2 Recommendations <br /> <br />It is rccommended that: <br /> <br />. New operational winter cloud seeding programs should be established in suitable areas in <br />the states of Arizona. Colorado. Utah and Wyoming that arc currently not part of active <br />operational programs. This will enhance runoff into the Colorado River Basin. The tcrm <br />"opcrational"' is used to denote programs \vhose primary goal is to produce additional <br />precipitation. In othcr words. these programs would not be research oriented. although <br />some research activities might be "piggybacked" on somc of these programs should <br />additional Federal or state funding become available. There is prccedent for this <br />approach in earlier "piggyback" research activities being added to operational programs <br />in Colorado. Nevada and Utah throllgh Federal funuing. <br />. The development of new programs should follow the existing regulations that are <br />concerncd with weather modification activities within each State: in which the program is <br />