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00\)1'79 the Basin States to develop and implement institutional arrangements. Final arrangements must be completed prior to the decision to implement a Basin-wide operational seeding program. 3. Public involvement. - The planning process for this program began with a request by Assistant Secretary of the Interior Horton on April 30, 1974, for a "a specific proposal for a demonstration project covering a suitable area in the Upper Colorado River Basin." An amount of $250,000 was approved in Reclamation's FY 1976 Atmospheric Water Resources Management Program budget under general planning studies to further pursue these planning studies. At that time the Colorado River Basin Pi lot Project was in the fourth of the five winter seasons of cloud seeding. The initial planning paper "Demonstrating Water Augmentation in Colorado River Basin and Adjoining Basins by Weather Modification" was prepared in May 1975 and informally circulated among State officials in the region, including the North American Interstate Weather Modification Council, water users, and key scientists involved in weather modifica- tion. By letter of October 23, 1975, to the Governors of the Basin States, Commissioner Stamm asked for views and participation in "Dis- cussing the desirability of further research in weather modification to refine and demonstrate cloud seeding technology for pOSSible use in augmenting streamflow in the Colorado River Basin." The first publiC meeting was held in Denver, Colorado, November 20, 1975, in response to Commissioner Stamm's letter. Representatives from Arizona, California, Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming and the Upper Colorado River Commission attended. This public meeting was significant because it immediately followed the November 1975 American Meteorological Society sponsored "Special Regional Weather Modification Conference on Augmentation of Winter Orographic Precipitation in the Western United States" at Burlingame, California, at which there was general agreement among the attending scientists on physical concepts underlying the potential increases in mountain snowfall. The scientific possibilities for augmenting the Colorado River were key issues in the papers dis- cussed. The recently completed North American Weather Consultants study on western water augmentation potential was also presented. It said a total Colorado regional augmentation of 2,080,000 acre-feet annually is possible. On January 22, 1976, the NAIWMC (North American Interstate Weather Modification Council) indicated an interest in providing assistance with further planning sessions. Under auspices of the Council, two major public planning meetings were conducted in Denver on August 4, 1976, and February 23, 1977. A complete report on these meetings and copies of all correspondence commenting on the proposed programs were published by the Council in August 1977. This report, titled "Coopera- tive Planning Sessions, Colorado River Weather Modification Demonstra- tion Project 1976-1977," Publication No. 7603 of the Council, was widely circulated in the region. The NAIWMC also sponsored planning discussion sessions as part of the Colorado River Water Users Associa- tion's annual meetings in 1977 and 1978. 38