The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors moved forward on a $400,000, yearlong extension of the county’s ongoing cloud seeding program as part of its administrative agenda on Sept. 14.
The county recognizes cloud seeding as a “cost effective supplemental water supply alternative” and has been at it on a regular basis since 1981. Before that, the county was on the receiving end of various cloud seeding research projects by federal, state, military, and academic entities, stretching back into the 1950s.
This year’s program is targeted at the Twitchell Reservoir Watershed and the Lake Cachuma Watershed, which together have storage space for some 250,000 gallons of water.
To help fill that storage space, the county is contracting North American Weather Consultants (NAWC). Company president Don Griffith told the Sun the first thing they need is clouds.
“Cloud seeding requires clouds before you can do anything,” he said. “When you have certain storm systems in the wintertime, some will contain what we refer to as convection bands.” The convection bands are visible from radar at Vandenberg Air Force Base, he said, and NAWC will meet them with planes and six remotely activated high-altitude dispersal stations in the mountains.
The county hopes to increase rainfall over Cachuma and Twitchell reservoirs by between 10 and 15 percent, according to the staff report. Griffith hopes for between 15 and 20 percent. The program will be suspended in the event of a big storm, or if either reservoir gets close to capacity.
This year’s seeding operations will run from Nov. 1 to April 30, 2016. The cost will be split between the county’s water agency and local water districts.
This article appears in Sep 17-24, 2015.