HB 130/a CLOUD SEEDING PILOT PROGRAM

Rep Jack Chatfield

Actions: HPREF [2] HAAWC/HAFC-HAAWC [3] DP-HAFC [9] DP/a [14] PASSED/H (61-6) [9] SCONC-SCONC [13] DP

Scheduled: Not Scheduled

 House Bill 130 (HB 130) creates a cloud seeding weather modification pilot project in the New Mexico Department of Agriculture and requires reporting. It appropriates one million nine hundred eighty thousand dollars ($1,980,000). 

 House Bill 130 (HB 130) creates a three-year cloud seeding weather modification pilot project with the purpose of demonstrating the efficacy of cloud seeding as a mechanism to mitigate the effects of climate change and drought. 
HB 130 directs the Roosevelt Soil and Water Conservation District and the New Mexico Department of Agriculture (NMDA) to enter into a joint powers agreement to conduct the pilot project; to collect data and design evidence-based weather modification demonstration projects; and to test the relative benefits of these demonstration projects.
HB 130 clarifies that any water coming from cloud seeding in not new water but will be administered and distributed in accordance with existing water rights and that the state will not be subject to any liability claims resulting from cloud seeding.
HB 130 requires the NMDA to establish forms and criteria for reporting data and record keeping that will be kept as permanent records and to report annually to the appropriate interim committee with a final report going to the governor and legislature with recommendations for improvements to and necessity of cloud seeding projects. 
HB 130 appropriates one million nine hundred eighty thousand dollars ($1,980,000) from the General Fund (GF) to the NMDA for expenditure in Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 through FY 2027 to administer the cloud seeding weather modification pilot project.

Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY 2027 reverts to the GF. 

 In 2022, the Interstate Stream Commission approved a plan for cloud seeding in drought-stricken southeastern New Mexico by the company Seeding Operations and Atmospheric Research based in Texas. It was the first time the agency had approved such a plan. Chavez, Curry, De Baca, Lea, Quay, and Roosevelt counties, which are suffering from extreme drought, were the area of this plan.
Cloud seeding generally involves airplanes injecting silver iodide into certain clouds or the use of ground-based cannons. It then leads to crystal formation which could lead to rainfall. Colorado has used this method of increasing precipitation for its ski basins and its water supply for several years.
https://www.krqe.com/news/politics-government/cloud-seeding-plan-in-southeastern-new-mexico-gets-approval/
 

 2/3/2024
The House Appropriations and Finance Committee removed the appropriation from the title and content of the bill.