Sorcerer's Apprentice?

Last winter almost everybody in New York City was groaning about the water shortage. Last week the groans came from another direction--the counties in New York State in & around the city's reservoir system. Reason: the heaviest rainfall in the last 50 years had all but deluged the Croton watershed, which supplies the city with 30% of its water.

Last year only 1.62 inches of rain were recorded in the Croton watershed for the first half of July. This year, during the first 13 days of July, 5.85 inches of rain fell into Croton's lakes and reservoirs. Croton Lake (capacity: 28 billion gallons) was within a mere drop (263 million gallons) of overflowing.

Was New York City's famed rainmaker Dr. Wallace E. Howell, who had been seeding all promising clouds with silver iodide since April 13, responsible for the downpours? More & more people upstate were saying that he was--a regular sorcerer's apprentice, in fact. In Goshen, N.Y., the Orange County Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution demanding that New York City "desist" from any further rainmaking efforts in the Catskill Mountains. Undismayed, Dr. Howell and his staff are still busily seeding clouds.

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