SMUD planning to expand cloud seeding over the Sierra

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) is planning to more than double their current cloud seeding program over the American River watershed from the current 190 square miles to 444 square miles.

Since 1968, SMUD has been involved in the practice of cloud seeding in El Dorado, Amador, and Placer counties to benefit electricity generation in the Upper American River Project (UARP) in Eldorado National Forest.

The extra 254 square miles of seeding area is in El Dorado County so SMUD officials are holding a public meeting on June 1 at the Strawberry Lodge at 6:30 p.m. At this meeting they plan to provide information and answer questions on the proposed project. Public is invited to comment on their Draft Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration (IS/MND) which was released May 17. It is available for review and comments until June 16.

They began to seeds clouds to initiate precipitation to augment snowfall in northern areas of the UARP watershed with the goal of increasing flow into SMUD’s storage reservoirs for subsequent generation of hydroelectric power. SMUD estimates that the program has successfully increased the snowpack in the targeted area by approximately an average of 3–10 percent.

The proposed project would focus on the watersheds of Ice House, Union Valley and Loon Lake reservoirs and SMUD's hydropower facilities in El Dorado County, as well as the South Fork American River watershed that drains into Slab Creek Reservoir and its associated hydropower facilities.

They plane to treat the expanded area with silver iodide nuclei dispersed by stationary ground units, aircraft and mobile units transported to selected site.

"All of the particulates fall out over the Basin as carried by the prevailing wind out of the southwest and west, mostly," said opponent to the project, Linda Witters, a 38-year-resident of Upper Lake Valley. "Their programs are poisoning both the east and western watersheds for their thirsty landscaping and buildings."

Witters is encouraging people to attend the Strawberry meeting, as is South Lake Tahoe resident Dona Baxter.

Baxter said she is concerned with the chemicals being added to the clouds that come over Lake Tahoe, and what they can do to humans, wildlife and the lake. "The last time I checked we are the guardians of a National Treasure that we want to be here for our kids and generations to come."

For those who want to know more and cannot attend the meeting, the IS/MND is available on line at https://www.smud.org/en/about-smud/company-information/document-library/CEQA-reports.htm, at the South Lake Tahoe Library, the Alpine County Library in Markleville, the Pollock Pines Library and SMUD offices in Pollock Pines and Sacramento. People may contact Jerry Park at 916.732.7406 or jerry.park@smud.org with any questions they may have.

The SMUD Board of Directors will consider approving the expanded cloud seeding project at their September 21 meeting at 6:00 p.m. at their Sacramento conference center located at 6301 S Street. The public can make comment there, as well as at the September 6 meeting of the SMUD Energy Resourced and Customer Service Committee meeting at the same location at 5:30 p.m.