BOARD00936

• Board Meeting Date: 1/25/2005
• Description: CWCB Director's Report
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

Congress annual convention. A draft of the Manual will be available for viewing during the Convention, .
but the Manual will not be distributed.

Wyoming Approves Cloud Seeding Program: On Dec. 14,2004 Flood Protection Section staff member
Joe Busto attended a workshop and public hearing held by the Wyoming Water Development
Commission to talk about Colorado's cloud seeding programs and the merits of the Wyoming cloud-
seeding proposal in front ofthe Commission.

Weather Modification Incorporated of North Dakota and the National Center for Atmospheric Research
(NCAR - Boulder) were the successful bidders for an initial $100,000 to design a five-year program for
Wyoming. This team will also bid for an $8.8 million to irnplement the program, providing the
recommendation makes it through the Wyoming legislature this spring. Wyoming is expected to pay for
the program using that state's Severance Tax revenues. Some of the significant parts ofthe proposal were:

. working up front with the USFS to locate remote controlled generators on federal lands;
. generators 30 miles upwind ofthe target areas (Colorado is typically 10-15 miles upwind);
. airborne and ground based seeding of the Medicine Bow-Sierra Madre Range and the Wind River
Range;
. physical measurements of natural and seeded clouds; and,
. advanced numerical modeling to select seeding sites to be used before each storm system and
evaluate the programs effects.

Conservative estimates of projected benefits range from a minimum of 130,000 to 260,000 acre-foot (AP)
per season at an estimated cost of$6.50 - $13/AF.

Wyoming's endeavor responds to a 2003 National Academy of Sciences Report entitled "Issues in .
Weather Modification Research" that called for a large-scale watershed experiment.

Please see the accompanying attachment.

Colorado Seed-ability Study: We have been working with HDR Engineering and Reclamation's River
Systems and Meteorology Group to utilize $25,000 in Severance Tax Operational Account funding and
$10,000 in Weather Modification permitting fees to develop a scope of work for a "Colorado Seed-ability
Study - Phase l."

I expect that a Severance Tax application for Phase II funding will be submitted by the Jan. 31.

The goal of this study is to characterize temporal and regional variability of seeding potential by
estimation of super-cooled liquid water (SL W) availability, temperature and microphysical parameters in
clouds over mountainous target regions of Colorado, based on climatological and research data. The study
will also investigate the use ofliquid propane generators. As funding expires on June 30, we intend to
have a report and presentation in July 2005.

2004 Weather Modification Grants: The CWCB has nearly completed the disbursement of the $20,000
in grants approved in the 2003 Projects Bill (SB 03-110).

A conference call between contractors on Nov. 30, 2004 clarified the criteria for eligibility and it was
determined that "standby" programs are eligible for a small portion of the funding. A standby program is
defined as a program that may not actively be seeding when the Nov. 1 seeding season starts but has: (1) a
permit, (2) maintains generators in place, (3) and has a contract for the year.

This criteria will be helpful next year when the CWCB might potentially have up to $60,000 to provide to .
grant recipients.

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