MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
This past winter was not very snowy in the Rocky Mountains, meaning no relief from the mega drought that is strangling the Colorado River. The seven states that rely on the river are hoping improved cloud seeding technology will boost snowfall and spring runoff. KUNC's Alex Hager reports.
ALEX HAGER, BYLINE: On an overcast spring day in the foothills north of Salt Lake City, Jared Smith crunched through the snow heading toward a white trailer about the size of a dumpster. It's got a few antennas and metal poles sticking out of the top.
JARED SMITH: Good to turn it off.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROPANE DEVICE CLICKING)
HAGER: This device burns propane to disperse microscopic particles of silver iodide into the atmosphere. Water droplets condense around them and fall as snow. It's technology that's been around since the 1950s, and Utah's Department of Natural Resources says some years it's boosting the state's water supply by more than 10%. Smith works for North American Weather Consultants, which operates about 200 of these across Utah.
SMITH: Really anywhere there's a mountain range that's going to be producing water, we're going to be trying to target it.
HAGER: Peer-reviewed research shows cloud seeding works, but the data isn't great on exactly how much more precipitation it causes. A couple of years ago, though, Utah upped its spending on cloud seeding from $350,000 a year to 5 million. Smith says new technology should make it even more effective. For a long time, stations like this one needed a human to trek into a snowy mountain range and turn them on one by one, sometimes hours before they could even be useful, wasting the fuel they needed to operate. But now, thanks to satellite and cellphone technology, an operator can flip one on at a moment's notice from the road, from the office...
SMITH: From their bed, yeah, anywhere - their phone, yeah.
HAGER: Jonathan Jennings runs Utah's cloud seeding program.
JONATHAN JENNINGS: If you're able to continue to live in the state of Utah without any worry about water, that's part of the cloud seeding program helping.
HAGER: Jennings says Utah is also using drones to get silver iodide into the clouds. He says researchers are looking closely at whether the new technology improves precipitation. He expects them to produce at least 10 peer-reviewed studies.
JENNINGS: It's not whether or not I believe in it. It's just it simply works. There's no discussion anymore as to whether or not it works. We have to answer how much it works.
HAGER: He says the findings from those studies will help explain what's possible elsewhere.
JENNINGS: Everybody not only has eyes on Utah, but they support what we're doing in hopes that we are widely successful to the point where their states are going to be forced to fund cloud seeding even more.
HAGER: As climate change continues to shrink the Colorado River, there's increased interest in cloud seeding, from its headwaters to irrigated deserts in states downstream. The main water agency in Las Vegas sent $800,000 to Utah's program because precipitation there feeds the Colorado River, which fills Las Vegas' bay and reservoir. Andrew Rickard runs cloud seeding for the state of Colorado.
ANDREW RICKARD: Let's put some real science and money behind this and show people that we can increase our water in a safe and efficient manner.
HAGER: Experts caution that cloud seeding is not a panacea. They say, ultimately, to deal with droughts, climate change and poor planning around the use of Colorado River water, people have to think about conserving water. While research shows it's safe to release silver iodide into the atmosphere in the amounts used by cloud seeders, people like Utah's Jonathan Jennings face harassment from people with conspiracy theories about the government controlling the weather or poisoning the air.
JENNINGS: They were death threats. Most of it was general harassment, but there were death threats and threat of doxxing as well. In fact, they were successful.
HAGER: Jennings said he's sticking with it in spite of the harassment. For NPR News, I'm Alex Hager in Ogden, Utah.
(SOUNDBITE OF BIBIO'S "BEWLEY IN GREY") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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