CORTEZ, Colo. (AP) — A remote-operated cloud-seeding generator is being installed in the mountains above Dolores in an attempt to improve snowpack and runoff into McPhee Reservoir.
Cloud seeders emit plumes of silver iodide into winter storm clouds to coax additional precipitation from clouds.
There are about 30 cloud-seeding generators stretching in an arc from Telluride to Mancos to Pagosa Springs. Most of the units are 40-year-old designs and require an operator to turn them on and off when conditions warrant.
The Cortez Journal reports that the Dolores Water Conservancy District has partnered with the Idaho Power Co. and Colorado Water Conservation Board on the project. Idaho Power has developed a more efficient remote-controlled generator that can be placed in locations higher in the mountains and closer to the clouds they seed.
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Information from: Cortez Journal, http://www.cortezjournal.com/
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