Water Education Foundation
This is just one post in the Drought, Weather & Snowpack Category
Click here to view all posts

Cloud seeding plan in California sparks debate

Posted by: Maven on December 25, 2008 at 6:17 am

From Scripps News:

A power company’s plans to amplify snowstorms in northern California have sparked a debate about cloud seeding.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has installed seven propane-burning cloud seed “generators” — collections of equipment that propel silver iodide particles into the air — atop ridges in Siskiyou and Shasta counties. The generators are set to go into use by the end of winter and should enhance storms over the Pit and McCloud river watersheds, said Byron Marler, a supervising meteorologist for the San Francisco-based company. “It’s like having a whole new Burney Falls added to those rivers,” he said.

The cloud seeding, which will be done 40 to 50 times a winter, should more than match the amount the water that flows over northern California’s signature waterfall, said Paul Moreno, company spokesman. He said it will produce 130,000 acre feet of water per year, enough to flood 130,000 acres a foot deep in water, or 1.2 times as much as flows each year over the falls near Burney.

But the company’s plans also have caused a flood of concern, especially from people in Siskiyou County, where much of the snow would fall.

Read more from Scripps News by clicking here.

December 25, 2008 · Filed Under Drought, Weather & Snowpack

Comments

One Response to “Cloud seeding plan in California sparks debate”

  1. The Underground’s Short Casts for 2008-12-30 | The Trout Underground Fly Fishing Blog on December 31st, 2008 12:00 am

    [...] on PG&E’s cloud-seeding program, which strikes me as a bad idea: http://aquafornia.com/archives/6090 [...]

Leave a Reply