Committee approves cloud-seeding study

CHEYENNE -- A special legislative committee agreed Thursday to ask the Legislature for $8.8 million for a five-year weather modification study, recommended by the Wyoming Water Development Commission.

The Select Water Committee approved the allocation request as part of the committee's omnibus water planning bill.

The cloud seeding study is the single most costly project on the list of $19.5 million in Level I feasibility studies for new development contained in the bill.

The water planning bill as well as an omnibus water construction bill will be introduced in the general legislative session that opens Jan. 11.

The weather modification study will involve cloud seeding near the Medicine Bow mountains, the Snowy Range, the Sierra Madre Range and the Wind River mountains.

The purpose of the study is to find out whether cloud seeding with silver iodide will increase the snowpack in the mountains.

The American Meteorological Society has said a good winter weather modification program can result in about a 10 percent increase in precipitation.

Wyoming water officials say such a project could increase water supply in the state at a cost far less than through dam construction.

Water commission officials estimated that cloud seeding could produce water at a cost of about $13 per acre foot, compared with a cost of about $2,500 per acre foot to build a new dam and reservoir

The testing involves dispersing silver iodide into the clouds from aircraft or ground-based burners to speed up ice formation within the clouds.

Capital bureau reporter Joan Barron can be reached at (307) 632-1244 or at joan.barron@casperstartribune.net.