Federal Rainmakmg

The U.S. Government has always steered clear of artificial rainmaking, except for experimental purposes. Cloud-seeding was developed by General Electric Co. scientists, and most of the large-scale seeding has been done by commercial rainmakers. But last week Under Secretary of the Interior Richard D. Searles announced that the Government has its hand in the clouds.

Next week Bonneville Power Administration will start seeding promising clouds over northeastern Washington and northern Idaho. The work will be done in forested or mountainous areas, so that any heavy rainfall brought down will not damage crops or farmlands. The actual work of seeding the clouds will be done under contract by the Water Resources Development Corp.

Despite the skeptical grumblings of the U.S. Weather Bureau, Under Secretary Searles is a cautious believer in the possibilities of man-made rain. In 1948, when he was president of the Salt River Valley Water Users' Association in Arizona, he used cloud-seeding, then almost untested, to increase the rainfall on the watershed above Roosevelt Dam. He believes the experiments produced 12,000 extra acre-feet of water, a welcome addition in drought-plagued Arizona.

The Bonneville Power Administration intends to spend about $50,000 on rainmaking this year. If the project is successful, the additional water it will send down the Columbia River will be worth $200,000 to $500,000 in electric power alone. This extra power will help relieve the nation's shortage of aluminum, much of which is produced by hydroelectric power in the power-short Northwest.

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