Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Idaho Power outlines cloud-seeding program, estimates ~1 million acre-feet annual benefit across basins
Summary
Idaho Power presented its collaborative cloud-seeding program to the Senate Agricultural Affairs Committee, describing operational history, 2024 equipment additions, estimated basin-level benefits totaling just over 1 million acre-feet and environmental studies that found no adverse effects from silver iodide use.
Idaho Power officials briefed the Senate Agricultural Affairs Committee on the utility’s collaborative cloud-seeding program, describing program history, operations, estimated benefits, environmental studies, and operational safeguards.
Cresta Davis, senior manager, water resources, Idaho Power, described cloud seeding in Idaho as "specifically about snowpack enhancement." Davis told the committee the company now operates 63 remote ground generators and three aircraft across target areas from western Wyoming through the Payette Basin and that the program expanded in 2024 to include liquid-propane ground generators in the Payette Basin.
Idaho Power provided basin-by-basin benefit estimates derived from a target-control methodology that compares snow accumulation inside seeded target areas against outside control areas. The company estimated average annual additional water supply of roughly 240,000 acre-feet in the Boise Basin, just over 100,000 acre-feet in the Wood River Basin, about 600,000…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
