Legislator pursues cloud seeding

Desperate times call for desperate measures, which is why Sen. Stuart Ingle, R-Portales, said funding is needed to reinstitute a cloud seeding program in Roosevelt and Lea counties.

Ingle's bill to secure $150,000 for a weather modification fund, specifically cloud seeding, is working its way to the Senate floor.

Ingle hopes the cloud seeding program will help with the lack of moisture in the area caused by what he considers one of the worst droughts in New Mexican history.

"I'm having a hard time getting money," Ingle said. "We did it (cloud seeding) about 15 or 20 years ago. We see potential."

Ingle said there are several counties he's studied in Texas who have successful cloud seeding programs and said those programs proved to make a noticeable difference for agricultural life by increased areas of green land.

"It was an unbelievable amount of difference," Ingle said.

He hopes others understand the need for the program, but he says he will continue to look for other ways to fund it.

Mike Cone, chairman of the Roosevelt Soil and Water Conservation Board, said cloud seeding has worked for Roosevelt County and he hopes it will again.

"It's not like this is something new. We had this program going until 2006 but due to funding issues, we had to quit," Cone said. "A massive drought brings on a little more urgency."

Cone applauds Ingle's efforts and hopes to dismiss any uncertainty about cloud seeding because he says it's a tool used to enhance what's already going to happen.

Cone added that radar is used to determine where and when to disperse chemicals into clouds.

"It's to enhance what Mother Nature is already going to do anyway," Cone said.

Cone admits cloud seeding is not a cure for drought conditions, but he predicts that if the program is reestablished, rainfall totals can increase by 12 to 15 percent.

He said because storm systems tend to move from west to east, it's ideal for them to start seeding clouds near Roswell in order for Roosevelt County to receive precipitation.

"I don't think we're taking rain away from someone else," Cone said. "If anything, we're enhancing it more for West Texas."

Cone said simply that cloud seeding increases precipitation so that it rains over a larger area for a longer period of time.

He feels the program proved to be successful when it was active a few years ago, adding that aerial photos that were taken in 2006 showed larger green areas in Roosevelt and Lea counties compared to other counties in New Mexico.

"It's just a tool, that's the way we look at it," Cone said. "We are in a bad situation. Sometimes you have to step up and help yourselves."

New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau Executive Vice President Matt Rush said cloud seeding is one of several options that has been considered to compensate for the lack of rain caused by the drought.

"In the midst of one of the worst droughts we ever had, we're looking at any kind of options to help alleviate the lack of rain," Rush said.