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This will be the largest one that the state government has actually assisted in. Since the reservoir will be located on federal land, we must go to exhaustive lengths to ensure the design adequacy and safety of the dam. We see no major problem with it. I If the bonds can be marketed, and if SB 69 passes, this board will be in a position to immediately advance the one million dollars. That will be contingent, of course, on the remainder of the financing being available. MR. FETCHER: I would like to express my thanks to Larry and his staff and, in particular, to Nick Ioannides, who has been most helpful in overcoming road blocks. without their help, we wouldn't be where we are. MR. SPARKS: The next subject I have, Mr. Chairman, is On the weather modification program. We are still carrying on the program. We did suspend the program in the Steamboat Springs area, because the snowpack was extremely high up there. We were getting some complaints of too much snow. We will never be able to satisfy all the interests with the weather modification program. Either we get too much snow or we get too little. We never get just the right amount. We are continuing on the program throughout the rest of the state and will continue through April 30. The snowpackis extremely favorable in most of the areas west of the Continental Divide. There is still a moisture deficiency here east of the Continental Divide, particularly from Denver on east in the high plains area. There is also an existing deficiency in the Arkansas Valley. The most critical deficiency is in the Rio Grande Basin, the San Luis Valley. Otherwise, we are running to almost 175 percent in various places in Western Colorado. The run- off looks quite favorable, although there are many factors that are yet unknown. For instance, how the weather will be, whether we have con- tinuing winds that evaporate the moisture, or how fast the weather warms up. There are many other factOrs that determine the runoff other than the snowpack itself. I The U. S. Geological Survey estimates indicate that, of allcthe pre- cipitation that falls in Colorado, estimated at about 90 million acre- feet a year, 83 percent of that evaporates before it ever reaches our rivers and streams. That 83 percent evaporates and we cannot measure it. You can see that the wind and weather has a tremendous impact upon the snowpack. At least at this time it looks very favorable, assuming that we have normal precipitation for the remainder of the year. There is one thing in Our favor--nobody can argue this year that the weather modification program was a failure. There is still a question of how much additional snow the program produced. A good many people are sold on the program, and they are hard after us to do it again next year. We think, indeed, that there must be a long-range weather modification program carried on in the state of Colorado. We see no other way of getting additional water in this state. We are not going to get any from any other source. We are working hard at the staff level to come up with a permanent, long-range program. The Legislature directed this -year that the Board prepare a comprehensive report on this year's -29-