Cloud-seeding project targets Walker Lake
HAWTHORNE -- A federal agency is pursuing a $1.3 million cloud-seeding project designed to coax more water from winter storms for Walker Lake.
The Bureau of Reclamation is seeking to fund the Desert Research Institute's cloud-seeding efforts.
The Reno-based institute has been seeding clouds in the upper Walker watershed since 1992, but reduced state funding is threatening to end its efforts.
The funding would allow the institute to continue seeding clouds into 2015.
Walker Lake's water levels have dropped about 145 feet since the early 1880s, largely because of upstream agricultural use. The decline threatens the lake's fish.
The bureau is accepting public comment on the proposal through Aug. 27.
The lake is about 130 miles south of Reno.
