Cloud Seeding Decision Delayed: Water Board Wants More Data

By Daniel Lopez, The Monterey County Herald, Calif.

Dec. 11–The winter rain season may be well under way before local water officials meet again to discuss the possibility of seeding clouds.

The Monterey Peninsula Water Management District board voted 6-1 on Monday to take the issue up again when it meets again next month.

Kristi Markey, who logged the opposing vote, said she believes the public got the wrong idea that district would definitely pursue cloud seeding and perceived the concept as “rain dancing.”

Seeding would involve introducing an ice-forming agent such as silver iodide into cloud regions to cause supercooled liquid water droplets to freeze. Frozen, the droplets expand, producing more raindrops when they melt and fall to the ground.

The board’s vote that will allow more time to gather more information on the process came after a brief presentation by Mark Solak, vice president of North American Weather Consultants.

Based in Utah, the company specializing in weather modification has been working with the water district staff to decide whether seeding clouds in the upper Carmel Valley River watershed is feasible.

The river provides 70 percent of the Peninsula’s water.

Director Regina Doyle asked about the potential objections the public may raise to the proposed project, especially concerning health issue and the environment.

Solak said objections are typically tied to a need for information and that the concentrations of silver iodide released are low and difficult to detect.

Other board members raised questions about the potential benefits and costs associated with cloud seeding.

Darby Fuerst, the district’s water resources manager, has said that under ideal conditions, seeding done from December to March could increase rainfall by 2 to 3 inches, up to 20 percent.

The project would cost about $150,000 for a ground application that would require setting up hilltop stands on plots of about 10-by-10 feet, equipped with flares, said Fuerst.

The flares, which shoot the silver iodide into the weather fronts, are triggered remotely by meteorologists who monitor storms moving through the region, said Solak.

The district does not have any money specifically for cloud seeding, but Fuerst said there is money in the district’s flood/drought reserve budget that could be applied.

Fuerst said the potential benefits could be the production of enough water to recharge the Carmel River’s underground aquifer, increased flow in the river, and the potential for allowing California American Water Co. to divert water from the river for injection to the Seaside aquifer.

David Dilworth, director of the group Helping Our Peninsula’s Environment, told the board it should not trust the figures of potential increased rain they were presented because Solak has a vested financial interest.

“This is not real science,” he said, comparing cloud seeding to rain dancing.

Solak told the board that seeding operations takes place on all continents except Antarctica and an estimated 25 to 30 countries have such projects. The most active are the United States and China, where about $100 million is spent each year on seeding.

The board will meet Jan. 24.

Meanwhile, the next chance for rain on the Peninsula may come Sunday, said Steve Anderson, a forecaster with the National Weather Service.

Anderson said a persistent ridge of high pressure has parked itself off the eastern Pacific, pushing storms that would typically reach the Monterey area north into Washington and Canada.

That high pressure ridge is expected to weaken by Sunday, giving way to the rain.

Anderson said the storm could bring a quarter to half an inch of rain.

As of Sunday for the winter season, Anderson said the area has received about 2.2 inches of precipitation, .67 of an inch below normal for the year.

“We can make that up in one single storm,” he said. “No need to panic yet,” he said.

Daniel Lopez can be reached at 646-4494 or dlopez@montereyherald.com.

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