Wyoming’s top scientists and water policy advisors laid out their case for why the state should continue its cloud seeding program to lawmakers recently. But language to ban the practice was moved forward. For a couple decades, the state has helped pioneer the technology that puts a little more water on a drought stricken landscape. Whether it continues is largely based on whether lawmakers believe Wyoming’s own research that the program works and is relatively safe or growing conspiracy concerns. … [T]o be a friendly [Colorado River] negotiator, the state needs to show it’s using all the “tools in the toolbox” to conserve – or create – more water, which includes cloud seeding.

Other Colorado River Basin news:

• KSJD (Cortez, Colo.): Western U.S. faces widespread drought as reservoir levels drop
• The Colorado Sun (Denver): Colorado’s US senators introduce bill to give a federal reservoir, Crystal Lake, to the city of Ouray​
• City Sun Times (Phoenix, Ariz.): Opinion: Proposed Bartlett Dam expansion aims to capture lost water supply​
• Farm Progress: Opinion: Water rights won’t matter when ‘dead pool’ arrives
• Aspen Times (Colo.): Opinion: Our fate flows with rivers