_Montana and Idaho threaten lawsuits
Cloud seeding plan brings torrents of criticism
Compiled from Associated Pres* reports
Gov. Bob Straub's plan to
spend $175,000 to seed Oregon
rain clouds has produced more
stormy reactions than rain so far
Saturday, Interior Secretary
Cecil Andrus said he opposed
cloud seeding programs such as
the ones being prepared by both
Oregon and Washington.
"I oppose cloud seeding and
will not expose the federal gov
ernment to a potential lawsuit," he
said.
Andrus, former Idaho governor,
said water artifically drained from
clouds over one state could dep
rive another state of needed pre
cipitation and be the basis for a
lawsuit.
Officials in both Idaho and Mon
tana have already threatened
legal action to prevent cloud seed
ing operations. Three cloud seed
ing experts and the Bonneville
Power Administration have also
voiced reservations about the ef
fectiveness of such a program.
US. Rep. Max Baucus,
D-Mont., called cloud seeding
plans ‘extremely dangerous,
premature and short-sighted.
Baucus said if a cloud seeding bill
before the Washington State
Legislature passed, he would take
action in Congress to stop seed
ing operations.
Idaho Atty. Gen. Wayne Kidwell
urged Straub Wednesday to re
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consider the cloud seeding prog
ram, claiming Oregon s program
could have ‘serious ramifica
tions for Idaho's agricultural pro
duction.
Last week Kidwell threatened a
lawsuit if the state of Washington
went ahead with an appropriation
for a cloud seeding project in that
state.
A spokesman for Straub said
the governor believed Andrus
was expressing an opinion, and
does not have the power to stop
cloud seeding by any state
State Rep. Bud Byers,
D-Lebanon, who urged Straub
last week to begin a cloud seeding
program, said he felt Montana and
Idaho were bluffing when they
threatened lawsuits.
"They don t have a suit They
don't have anything viable to base
their lawsuits on. According to my
information there have been no
legal cases where weather mod
ification has been viewed with dis
favor," he said
Thursday the Washington State
Legislature moved a step closer to
beginning a cloud seeding prog
ram when the House Appropria
tions Committee voted to approve
$125,000 for such a program
Charles Roe, assistant attorney
general for Washington State,
also discounted efforts by other
states to prevent cloud seeding
"I really don t perceive any prob
lems with it," he said last week
shortly after Kidwell telephoned
his objections to the Washington
State Attorney General
Even if lawsuits are not brought
against Oregon or Washington,
the proposed cloud seeding prog
rams may not live up to their ex
pectations
W George Slinn, director of
Oregon State University s air re
sources center, cautioned that
improper cloud seeding could
backfire, resulting in even drier
conditions.
You just can't charge out there
and seed the clouds, he said if
you dont do it right, you ll come
out behind as many times as you II
come out ahead
He explained that releasing too
many of the silver iodine crystals
used in cloud seeding could cool
the water particles in the clouds
too much and cause them to re
main suspended in the clouds as
frozen particles
Even the company being consi
dered to perform the operation for
Oregon, North American Weather
Inc., isn t maKing any urasm,
promises
Company spokesman, Keith
Brown, said, "If we had been
seeding all this winter — so far —
there would still have been very
little ram.
He said his company seeded
clouds last year for Portland Gen
eral Electric Co in the Cascades
and the result was only a 15 to 20
per cent increase in the snow
pack
Washington Gov Dixy Lee
Ray, who has remained cool to
cloud seeding proposals, called
the project before the Washington
Legislature "fraught with many
uncertainties and a drastic long
shot
Peter Hobbs of the University of
Washington, a mapr backer of the
project, said he is concerned the
bill might be talked to death while
storms come through without pro
ducing much ram
Hobbs, who holds a doctorate in
cloud physics from the University
of London, however, conceded
the project was "a longshot and
said we re running out of time be
cause we are approaching the
end of our winter season
Don Hodel, head of the Bon
neville Power Administration, also
holds out little hope that a cloud
seeding program will noticeably
alleviate the Northwest s drought
There is probably very little
that can be accomplished by
cloud seeding," said Hodel We
haven t done it for several years,
but when we did it, its impact
seemed to be quite marginal
. maybe a five to ten per cent
increase of ram in the (Columbia)
basin where cloud seeding was
done
Reforesters can t
weather and climate
Even though Sunday s brief showers helped
some, area reforestation projects are taking a
beating from the dry weather and two major
private timber landowners have been forced to
suspend some tree planting operations.
Officials from Weyerhaeuser Co. report the
dryness of southeast slopes has forced the
company to suspend planting seedlings on
those hillsides and a Georgia Pacific Corp.
spokesman reports that company has sus
pended tree planting operations tor the sea
son.
Although the Willamette National Forest is
going ahead with most of its scheduled plant
ing of 4 million trees, silviculturalist Ralph
Jaszkowski says "we could lose our shirt if
significant rainfall doesn't come soon He said
some 4,000 acres of seedlings planted last fall
are in jeopardy because of drying winds and
freezing weather.
The Eugene District of the Bureau of Land
Management also suspended tree plantings
for a time during February but resumed them
when moist weather made conditions more
favorable
Seedlings used for reforestation are grown
in outdoor nurseries and then transplanted to
forest slopes. The transplanting must be com
pleted no later than March 15, before the roots
of the dormant trees begin to grow, according
to reforestation specialist Brian Cleary.
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