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OOJ156 The validity of weather modification as a means of increasing precipita- tion was a major conclusion of the U.S. Secretary of Commerce's Weather Modification Advisory Board. This Board was appointed by the Secretary of Commerce in 1977 to conduct a comprehensive investigation of the state of scientific knowledge concerning weather modification in order to develop a national policy and program of research and development. In its 1978 report, The Management of Weather Resources, stated that: "In terms of scientific and technological underpinning and in consideration of probable high economic value, it is the judg- ment of this Board that seeding winter orographic storms to increase the amount of snow in the high mountainous watersheds of the West is the most advanced -- and closest to significant, board-scale operational use -- of all cloud seeding possibilities. "A successful confirmatory experiment -- including, of course, provision for assessing the seeding results -- must be completed before large-scale seeding of winter orographic storms is considered to be an acceptable tool, available to water-resource decision makers." The Weather Modification Advisory Board's conclusions were supported in a 1979 report to the President and the Congress on 'National .Weather Modifi- cation Policies and Programs from the Secretary of Commerce. The report concluded that the cloud seeding technique for enhancement of orographic snowfall in the Rocky Mountains is well developed and confirmatory tests should receive first priority. The Colorado Department of Natural Resources 1979 draft assessment, The Availability of Water for Oil Shale and Coal Gasification Developmen~n the Upper Colorado River ~asin, prepared for the U.S. Water Resources Council, concluded that a conservative estimate of precipitation increase in the Upper Basin would be 10 percent. A Department of the Interior 1980 Special Report prepared by the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Project on Reject Stream Replacement Study also looked at alternatives for augmentation. The conclusion reached was that weather modification could provide abundant replacement water but until a demonstration pr09ram can establish the required proof, it cannot be considered. An investigation of water availability from NavajO Reservoir and the Upper Colorado River Basin for use in New Mexico was made within Reclamation. Several alternatives were considered including weather modification. It was concluded that a program to expedite a proven operational status should be pursued as soon as possible. 13