Friday, April 9, 1999
Air Force hears cloud-seeding concerns at Big
Lake
By HOLLY HENRY
San Angelo Standard-Times
BIG LAKE — Crop dusting and cloud seeding were high on
the list of concerns citizens brought up at a public hearing here
Thursday night in response to the Air Force’s Real-istic
Bomber Training Initiative.
About 50 people gathered in the Reagan County High School auditorium
to address the Draft Environ-mental Impact Statement the Air Force
released last month.
“The expansion of the Texon MOA would hit our target area
for rain enhancement,” said Aldis Strautins, meteorologist
and project manager for the West Texas Weather Modifi-cation Association,
a cloud-seeding project.
Scott Holland, secretary/treasurer for the association, told
Air Force representatives he was concerned cloud seeding was not
even mentioned in the environmental statement.
“These ranchers and farmers need rain, and we’re
trying to do something about it,” said Holland, who also
is general manager of the Irion County Water Conservation District.
Thursday’s meeting in Big Lake was smaller and quieter
than a similar meeting Wednesday in Snyder, where more than 400
came out in op-position to the low-level bomber training.
The Air Force’s proposal would expand current military
operating areas, or MOAs, for low-level bomber training with B-1s
and B-52s. The Air Force is studying four possibilities —
two that would include flight training, not below 3,000 feet,
over several West Texas counties.
The MOAs would combine existing airspace to make bomber training
more efficient for Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene and Barks-dale
Air Force Base in Louisiana. The Air Force would establish five
15-acre electronic scoring sites to provide pilots with realistic
training.
The meetings in West Texas this week give the public an opportunity
to address points made, or not made, in the environmental analysis.
After a 90-day public comment period, the final statement will
be released. A decision will be made early next year.
The 400-page statement gives a detailed analysis of how each
proposal would impact the area. It addresses potential environmental
consequences to airspace and aircraft operations, land management
and use, biological resources, cultural re-sources, socioeconomics,
environmental justice, soil and water.
Cloud seeding is not a science and various factors — height,
temperature, moisture — contribute to whether clouds are
optimum for seeding, Holland said.
Strautins completes a weather forecast every morning, and if
the clouds are right, the pilots need to act immediately, Holland
said.
Timing is everything, he said. And the Texan MOA would be restricted
airspace, and pilots couldn’t get into to it to spread the
seed.
A similar sentiment expressed at the Snyder meeting flowed
over into the Big Lake gathering: train the pilots, but do it
somewhere else.
“The ranchers and farmers are devoted caretakers of the
land. There are other places the military can train. I don’t
suggest Nevada, it already glows in the dark from the military,”
one woman said.
“I was in the Air Force and I have good feelings about
the Air Force; however, I’m concerned about the extremely
low level,” another person said.
Some of the other 15 people who made their feelings public
are concerned about private property and the effects on livestock,
water, soil and basic quality of life.
“The military is in the business of death and destruction.
They cannot be mixed with the people they are mandated to protect,”
said Kay Kelley, who operates the Trans-Pecos Protection Group,
which opposes the training.
Other public hearings are scheduled for 5 p.m. today at Pecos
High School, and at 5 p.m. Saturday in Alpine at the Alpine Recreation
Center.
Send a Letter to the Editor about This
Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
Send the URL (Address)
of This Story to A Friend:
Copyright ©1999,
Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
|
