Wyoming committee deadlocks on 10-year cloud seeding moratorium

The Agriculture, State & Public Lands & Water Resources Committee on Oct. 30 considered 26LSO0210, a proposed 10-year moratorium on cloud seeding and similar weather-modification activities but did not advance the bill after a 5-5 tie vote.

The proposal would have suspended activities authorized under Wyoming’s weather-modification statutes (W.S. 9-1-1905 through 9-1-1909) and created criminal penalties and fines for unauthorized operations during the moratorium. Committee discussion focused on whether emergencies (wildfire suppression, flood control or public safety) should be exempted, how to define an authorization process and whether the state should fund baseline studies of cloud-seeding effects.

Brad Brooks, representing the City of Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities and speaking also as a Colorado River Advisory Committee member, urged the committee to weigh the operational value of cloud seeding for municipal water supply. “I’ll buy all the water I can for 80 some dollars an acre foot if you can tell me where it's at,” Brooks said, arguing that the unit cost sometimes quoted for cloud-seeding-produced water could be affordable…