BOARD02022

• Board Meeting Date: 3/11/1959
• Description: Minutes
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

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DR. ROBERTS:

MR. STAPLETON:

MR. SPARKS:

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13b'/

forthcoming funds that have been referred
to in this weather modification act, which,
by the way, for the record, is Senate Bill
No. 943, to parallel the House Bill."

"I think it's only fair to say that we
would be doing research that could be used
by other states, and in fact, by the entire
nation, but in turn we would be building that
research on the basis of things that have been
done elsewhere whose benefits we would be in-
corporating into our work. I think, at least
from my side, it would be dishonest to say
that the things that we obtain here would
not be immediately applicable in other areas.

That's just part of the basic nature of
scientific research. If you do something
and publish it, it becomes of benefit to any-
body who chooses to pick it up."

"Are there any other questions from the
members of the Board? How about our guests
at the meeting today - does anyone have any
questions they would like to address to these
gentlemen? Larry, do you have some comments
you would like to make?"

"Possibly the one thing I think Mr. Miller
mentioned about the studies of the Bureau of
Reclamation. All the studies that either the
Bureau does or that our staff does in connec-
tion with water supply, future water supply
for any project, is based upon past stream
flow. Now we all realize that that method
is completely inadequate because we have not
the faintest idea that the stream flow, we'll
say, for the past twenty years is going to
equal the stream flow for the next twenty.
We are merely taking past history and assuming
that that condition will repeat itself within
the next period of years that the past history
concerned.

That, to date, is the only method we have
of projecting water supply availability for
projects which we are now constructing or which
we will construct in the future. As I stated,
that is an extremely poor method. It is really
not based upon scientific evidence of any type.
It is merely based upon what has happened, and
there is not too much probability that condi-
tions which existed within the past twenty years