BOARD01179

• Board Meeting Date: 7/25/2006
• Description: CWCB Director's Report
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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the North American Interstate Weather Modification Council, Desert Research Institute, and the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. It is estimated that cloud seeding six major runoff-producing areas .
within the Colorado River Basin could produce between l.l and 1.8 million acre-feet (mal) in the
Upper Basin (approximately 10 percent of the average annual stream flow) and an additional
830,000 acre-feet in the Lower Basin. Ofihat total, approximately 1.7 mafwould be available to
reduce deficits and meet new demands. Such estimates are based on past experiences, including
successful programs in Colorado and Utah that have yielded increases in precipitation of 7-20
percent at costs less than $20 per acre-foot.

A number of uncertainties including precipitation microphysics, cloud dynamics, cloud modeling
and seeding issues related to program design, and execution and evaluation need to be further
addressed. The natural variability inherent in precipitation patterns is also a major hurdle to
tracing and evaluating the effectiveness of seeding. Moreover, changes in the atmosphere,
climate and thermodynamics effect precipitation and seeding activities. Some studies suggest
increasing air pollution and related aerosols, such as sulfate (the sources of which are about 70
percent anthropogenic) may adversely impact some ongoing seeding activities in the basin. It
appears that the super cooled liquid physics related to precipitation operate much more efficiently
in unpolluted environments.

The Seven Colorado River Basin States will continue to evaluate and address issues associated
with cloud seeding.

Weather Modification Annnal Report: The full text ofthe CWCB Weather Modification
Program 2005 -2006 Annual Report can be found on the CWCB website at
www.cwcb.state.co.us/board/reoortslweathermodreoort06.doc.

Colorado Communities Receive Federal Funding for Mitigation: Two federal grant
programs continue to provide financial resources for Colorado communities to participate in
mitigation activities.

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The Pre-Disaster Mitigation (PDM) grant program is an All-Hazards Mitigation program to fund
plans and projects for communities to reduce their susceptibility to a wide variety of natural
hazards. Rather than allocating a certain amount of funding to each state, the program was
nationally competitive with applicants from every state competing against each other for a
national pool of $50 million.

In Colorado, the grant program is managed by the Colorado Division of Emergency Management
(CDEM), an agency housed within the Department of Local Affairs. As in past years, CDEM has
requested technical assistance from the CWCB Flood Protection Section for all flood-related
applications. They also requested general assistance with the review and finalization of
applications related to other hazards.

The Flood Section provided significant assistance throughout the application process and the
results were positive. The City of Colorado Springs received a grant of nearly $3 million for a
flood mitigation project on an eroding stream that is threatening a critical telecommunications
facility. In addition, CDEM reported that almost $1 million in grants were awarded to other
communities for projects relating to other natural hazards, most notably wildfires. Altogether,
more than $4 million of federal grant funding was awarded for projects and plans, with flood
grants representing the majority of these funds.

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