SARATOGA - There appeared to be little support for a proposed $8.825 million state-funded weather modification program at a hearing of the Wyoming Water Development Commission here Monday.

The proposed program would involve seeding clouds in the vicinity of the Medicine Bow/Snowy and Sierra Madre ranges as well as in the Wind River Mountains to test whether such seeding would increase snowpack in the mountains - and therefore create additional water for the state.

The American Meteorological Society has said a well-conducted winter weather modification program can result in about a 10 percent increase in precipitation, while an experiment in the Bridger Range in southwestern Montana has achieved a 15 percent increase. Wyoming water officials say such a project could increase water supply in the state at a cost far less than through development of dams.

A water commission estimate indicates that cloud seeding could produce water at a cost of about $13 per acre foot, compared with a cost of about $2,500 per acre foot to build a new dam and reservoir.

During Monday's hearing, Bruce Boe, director of meteorology for Weather Modification Inc. of Fargo, N.D. - which is conducting the feasibility study for the commission - said the value of water created by such a project ranges from $2.4 million to $2.7 million annually, with the greater potential in the Wind River Range and slightly lesser impact in the Snowy and Sierra Madre mountains.

Most comments at the hearing came from ranchers who expressed concern about effects that such a program could have on areas downwind from the seeding areas.

Wayne Platt, who ranches southeast of Encampment, questioned past effects of cloud seeding projects in Utah and Colorado and how they have affected weather conditions in the Sierra Madre and Snowy ranges, among other places.

"It seems to me the more you screw around with nature, the worse off you are," Platt said. "Why not let nature take its course?"

Saratoga rancher Scott Kerbs suggested the project should involve analysis by attorneys of potential effects to the state caused by lawsuits from people who believe they are harmed by cloud seeding.

"Everything upstream (up wind) of us has been sapping the moisture," Kerbs said, suggesting weather modification projects may be an "infringement on interstate commerce."

George Williams, who ranches north of Saratoga in the Pass Creek/Elk Mountain area, was the only local speaker to express strong support for the program. He has served on the commission's advisory council and said, "We must pursue any avenues that we can to get more water."

However, he suggested there needs to be a way to suspend seeding operations during some periods of the year.

"I lived on Elk Mountain when those old seeding programs were under way," he said of studies conducted by the University of Wyoming in the 1970s. Ranchers in the area asked the University of Wyoming to suspend operations during calving.

Boe of Weather Modification Inc. and Tara Jensen, associate scientist for the National Center for Atmospheric Research, outlined the proposed project and explained data collected during a feasibility study that is under way. Both said there are effects on areas away from specific weather modification project sites. Jensen said such impacts could extend 50 to 90 miles from the sites.

Boe said studies show that precipitation can be increased from 10 to 20 percent by seeding clouds, but he said - in response to specific questioning by Kerbs - that only about 1 percent of the available atmospheric moisture would be depleted in the process.

Even after a lengthy explanation, Kerbs said, "I still fail to see how 10 percent increase in water is only 1 percent depletion."

The Water Development Commission staff has recommended funding the five-year study and will take the issue to the commission Dec. 15 in Cheyenne, where the commission will decide if it should be forwarded to the Legislature for funding.

The study would test the theory that releasing silver iodide into the atmosphere at locations and times when there is moisture present could increase snowfall. If the studies are successful, additional snowpack could have wide-reaching benefits, including more water for agriculture, cities and towns, and hydropower production through releases from reservoirs managed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Further, Boe said, there is the potential that added snowpack in the Wind Rivers could "slow the retreat of the glaciers."

The Wind River and Sierra Madre/Snowy Range weather modification programs likely would involve location of ground burners about 30 miles apart placed all around each of the ranges, Jensen said.

Because at least some placement would occur on federal lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service or BLM, environmental studies would be conducted, Boe said.

How cloud seeding works

* The concept: Cloud seeding is a process of adding chemicals - silver iodide - to the right kind of clouds to enhance the potential for snowfall. The clouds seeded are already usually close to snowing, but they may not be able to produce naturally the right type of particles to make that actually happen.

* Getting it in the air: Once the chemicals are released into the clouds - through the use of aircraft or from ground-based burners that operate on solar, wind or battery power - wind transports and disperses the agent into the clouds.

* What happens: The chemicals cause accelerated ice formation within the cloud, and there is then an increase in the precipitation mass, which leads to increased precipitation on the ground.

Sources: Bruce Boe, Weather Modification Inc., Fargo, N.D., and North American Weather Consultants, Salt Lake City

Star-Tribune correspondent Candy Moulton can be reached by e-mail at Candywwa@aol.com.