The rainmaker

If it's going to rain, let's squeeze as much precipitation out of those clouds as possible.

That's the idea behind a Texas-based company that has proposed seeding rainclouds this spring over Quay County and other parched areas of eastern New Mexico.

Seeding Operations and Atmospheric Research, or SOAR, based in San Angelo, Texas, took out legal ads in January in the Quay County Sun and in newspapers in Clovis, Fort Sumner, Roswell, Hobbs and Carlsbad.

SOAR is requesting a "weather control and precipitation enhancement" license from the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission on behalf of the Roosevelt Soil and Water Conservation District to conduct air-based operations in Quay, Curry, Roosevelt, De Baca, Chaves, Eddy and Lea counties from April through June.

Gary Walker, CEO of the company, indicated the state soon would make a decision on his application, as the comment period was scheduled to expire this week. An email to the Stream Commission requesting a possible date for its decision was not answered.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor on Feb. 3, much of eastern New Mexico remains in extreme, severe or moderate drought conditions. A chunk of Chaves County is mired in an exceptional drought.

Walker said forecasts for the spring also indicate drier and warmer than normal conditions.

That's where Walker's cloud-seeding company comes in.

"Our purpose is to get additional precipitation out of a cloud," he said in a phone interview. "We know we can do that because we had all kinds of research over the years that shows with a suitable cloud that's seeded at the proper time, we can get 15% to 20% more precipitation out of that cloud. That's the industry standard."

Cloud-seeding, or "weather modification" as Walker calls it, to create more precipitation isn't a new thing. He said 40 counties in the U.S. and several countries, including Greece, Argentina and Canada, use it. It's not a "voodoo operation," he said, but technology that's been around for more than 50 years that has only improved.

"Obviously, weather technology 50 years ago isn't what it is today," he said. "The technology we have today, with better radars, better flares, better communications ... all that makes for a better product with weather modification."

Walker explained that cloud-seeding agents - usually silver iodide that spew from lit flares attached to airplanes - attract water molecules that form raindrops and creates heat that help keep a cloud buoyant and even enlarges it.

"It's going to rain more, and it's going to last longer," he summarized.

The Stream Commission had planned to hire a Colorado company to begin seeding clouds in northern New Mexico in November, but the company withdrew its application. The plan had encountered some concern from residents about the possibility of water pollution from such operations.

Walker said those concerns are "way overblown." He said reams of scientific studies exist that show negligible to no traces of the chemicals used in cloud seeding.

"People ask about the environmental impact," he said. "My general comment is that there isn't anybody more environmentally friendly than California. If the industry were creating any health hazards, California would not allow the snow seeding that occurs there up and down the Sierras.

"As we say, 'Show us your science that we're polluting, and we'll show you our science that we're not,'" he added.

Walker said SOAR has two aircraft, but one is in Idaho for a cloud-seeding operation to induce more snowfall there. His company employs a second pilot and a meteorologist.

Walker said his proposal to the state, if approved, would pay his company about $40,000 a month. He said the money was allocated during the New Mexico Legislature's 2021 session.

Bill Runyan, a rancher who lives near House in southern Quay County, said the last time the region used a cloud-seeding operation was more than 20 years ago, when he was a board member of the Southwest Quay Soil and Water Conservation District.

One problem he recalled with the previous effort, which he said lasted for three years, is "you've got to have clouds before it can work."

"At that particular time, we weren't having many clouds," he said.

Runyan said those companies have to seed a good distance west of the target area for rain.

"If they seed the clouds over us, the areas in Texas are going to benefit instead," he said.

Runyan said the Stream Commission insisted it had data the cloud seeding worked, but he was not convinced it had much of an effect.

"Did it work? I have no idea. I don't know if it hurt anything. I don't know if it helped anything," he said.