Santa Fe weighs $5,000 protein cloud-seeding pilot for watershed snowpack

Santa Fe weighs $5,000 protein cloud-seeding pilot for watershed snowpackSanta Fe’s Public Works and Utilities Committee heard plans for a February-March trial using a naturally occurring, biodegradable protein rather than silver iodide to induce precipitation over the city’s water basins. Modelling presented to the committee estimated potential water generation of about 200 acre-feet per month with an 80% chance.

Supercool Earth proposed five to 10 drone missions, each lasting up to 30 minutes, during February or March.

The company said its protein-based agent is naturally present in clouds, snowpack, rain and soil, and degrades through microbial and chemical processes.

The proposed pilot would cost about $5,000, according to Interim Public Utilities Department Director Jesse Roach.

Roach said the city would defer the trial in a winter when reservoir-fill forecasts indicate sufficient snowpack, while permits from the FAA and New Mexico agencies remain in progress.

Santa Fe is considering a small-scale cloud-seeding trial that could test a new biodegradable protein as a means of increasing snowpack in the city’s water basins. At the September 21 Public Works and Utilities Committee meeting, Supercool Earth outlined a proposed February-March pilot involving five to 10 drone missions over the Nichols and McClure basins. The company would release a small quantity of its protein powder during missions of no more than 30 minutes, then use radar and rain-gauge equipment to assess the precipitation generated. Unlike conventional cloud seeding, which commonly uses silver iodide, Supercool Earth said its agent is a naturally occurring protein produced by soil microbes. The company said the protein is found in clouds, snowpack, rain and soil, helps form ice in clouds, and breaks down after deployment through microbial activity, sunlight and other chemical processes. The technology has not previously been tested for cloud seeding. The company said it recently conducted a field trial in New Zealand demonstrating that the protein could support snowmaking at conditions where snow could not otherwise be made. It plans internal testing before any Santa Fe deployment. Using 40 years of weather data, Supercool Earth identified February and March as the strongest prospective seeding months for the two basins. Its modelling estimated that cloud seeding could generate about 200 acre-feet of water per month with an 80% probability. The proposed Santa Fe trial is intended to test those estimates in field conditions. Interim Public Utilities Department Director Jesse Roach said the pilot is proposed at approximately $5,000. He told the committee that, if 200 acre-feet of snow were produced and half ultimately reached the reservoirs, the resulting 100 acre-feet would equate to roughly $50 per acre-foot. Roach said the city values water in its reservoirs at between $100 and $400 per acre-foot when compared with the energy cost of pumping water from BDD. The company is pursuing FAA waivers for beyond-visual-line-of-sight and altitude operations, and said it is also engaging the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission and the Forest Service on approvals. Roach said the city would not proceed in a particularly wet winter if reservoir forecasts showed a greater than 50% chance of filling them. In that case, the trial would be postponed to another year. Committee members voiced support for the proposed experiment, while asking staff to keep them updated as permitting and testing progress.