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12 Ariz. L. Rev. 35 (1970)
State Regulation of Weather Modification

handle is hein.journals/arz12 and id is 41 raw text is: STATE REGULATION OF WEATHER MODIFICATION* RAY JAY DAVIS* * During a dry midsummer week roughly the same volume of vaporized water will move across the Arizona skies as annually flows in the Colorado River.1 Nature is inefficient in tapping the rivers of the skies, so man has sought means for triggering precipitation and modifying the weather.2 During the past quarter century meteorologists have been 9seeding clouds by introducing into them substances such as silver iodide, salt, dry ice, water, and urea. Through laboratory tests, field studies, and operations they have learned much about cloud physics and have devel- oped techniques, equipment, and materials for weather modification.8 A National Academy of Sciences study panel on weather modification reported in 1966 increasing but still somewhat ambiguous statistical evi- * Research for this article was sponsored by the National Science Foundation which supported studies of the Task Group on the Legal Implications of Weather Modification. The Task Group report to the Foundation, CONTROLLING THE WEATHER: A STUDY OF LAW AND REGULATORY PROCESSES (1970), includes papers on weather modification regulation by local, state, and federal governments. Sato, A Report on the Role of Local Government Units in Weather Modification: Cali- fornia Microcosm, in id. at 325; Davis, Strategies for State Regulation of Weather Modification, in id. at 256; and Johnson, Federal Organization for Control of Weather Modification, in id. at 183. ** Professor of Law, University of Arizona. B.A. Idaho State University, 1948; J.D. Harvard Law School, 1953; LL.M. Columbia Law School, 1956. 1 Statement of former Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall in Hearings on Progress in Weather Modification Before Subcomm. on Water and Power Resources of the Senate Comm. on Interior and Insular Affairs, 90th Cong., 1st Sess., at 20 (1967). 2 Weather modification has been variously defined. Proposed federal legis- lation speaks of altering the composition, behavior and dynamics of the atmos- phere. H.R. 9212 and S. 373, 90th Cong., 1st Sess. § 102(a) (1967). The regula- tions of the National Science Foundation requesting reports concerning modification of weather refer to (1) intentional efforts, (2) designed to modify the atmosphere, (3) through use of artificial means. The NSF rules contain a list of various sub- stances as illustrations of materials that are dispersed to accomplish this purpose. 45 C.F.R. § 635.2 (1968), as amended, 33 Fed. Reg. 12654 (1968). 3 Development of practical techniques, equipment, and materials for seeding has been the subject of several conferences of Bureau of Reclamation weather modifica- tion contractors. OFFICE OF ATMOSPHERIC WATER RESOURCES, PROCEEDINGS: SKY- WATER CONFERENCES I-IV (1967-69). Improvement in the skills of weather changers can be traced through examination of the series of reports of the National Science Foundation on weather modification. NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION, WEATHER MODIFICATION (First-Ninth Ann. Rep.) (1960-69). For textual treatments of the scientific aspects of weather modification that are written for laymen, see Battan, A Brief Survey of the Scientific Aspects of Weather Modification, in CONTROLLING THE WEATHER: A STUDY OF LAW AND THE REGU- LATORY PROCESSES 46 (1970); L. BATTAN, HARVESTING THE CLOUDS: ADVANCES IN WEATHER MODIFICATION (1969); L. BATrAN, CLOUD PHYSICS AND CLOUD SEEDING (1962); D. HALACY, THE WEATHER CHANGERS (1968); B. MASON, CLOUDS, RAIN AND RAINMAKING (1962); Roberts, The State of the Art in Weather Modification, in WEATHER MODIFICATION AND THE LAW 1 (H. Taubenfeld ed. 1968).

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