Taos Pueblo scolds Interstate Stream Commission for lack of communication on cloud seeding
Taos Pueblo admonished the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission for failing to specifically reach out to tribal leadership before moving forward with a plan to conduct cloud seeding, which it said would have impacted their sovereign lands.
In a letter sent Dec. 6, 2021, but received by regular mail last week, Gov. Clyde M. Romero Sr. and War Chief Fred L. Romero said their tribe was “concerned with the Office of the State Engineer Interstate Stream Commission (ISC) approach to public notice and consultation practices.”
At issue was a plan — since rescinded — by Western Weather Consultants of Durango, Colorado, and paid for by the Roosevelt County Soil and Water Conservation District of southeast New Mexico, to initiate a cloud seeding project to improve the area’s snowpack. The project would have placed seven cloud-seeding nuclei generators at locations along the Sangre de Cristo Mountains from Red River to Santa Fe. It was to have begun Dec. 13, 2021 and continue through March 15, 2022.
Members of the public first took notice of the plan when a Nov. 11 legal notice appeared in the Taos News that stated the “intended effect of the operation is to increase precipitation/snowpack water content … to benefit: natural habitat, agriculture, municipal water, stock growers, recreational and tourism interests, local economy.”
But, after a webinar hosted by the Interstate Stream Commission on Nov. 22, 2021, during which the majority of the 150-plus members of the public who dialed-in strongly voiced their objections, WWC dropped their plans the next day.
It was during that webinar that members of Native American communities voiced their objections to the ISC that their tribal leadership was not contacted during this project’s planning stages. Many others also objected to the ISC’s 10-day written notice requirement to voice public objections.
The letter from Taos Pueblo, addressed to Myron Armijo, Native American Tribal Liaison at the Office of the State Engineer, said the “recent proposed cloud seeding project concerned Taos Pueblo as tribal leadership was not informed directly.” During the webinar, it was stated that the ISC was contacted by Taos Pueblo, but it turns out that was a tribal government employee seeking information on the plan, not a member of the leadership staff.
“This project would have occurred over most of Taos Pueblo’s land base and notification to tribal leadership was never considered,” the letter continues. “A statement was made during public meeting for cloud seeding project by employee of ISC that Taos Pueblo had reached out and no opposition was received. A Taos Pueblo employee reached out to get more information on project so leadership could be informed. Taos Pueblo would like to remind the Interstate Stream Commission that communicating with a tribal employee does not constitute government-to-government consultation.”
When contacted for this story, ISC Deputy Director Hannah Riseley-White, who also heads the newly formed Weather Control Committee at ISC, said she appreciated the tribe’s “care and concern and their interest in having appropriate communication and consultation.” But, as far as this specific project is concerned “it was retracted before the full, formal evaluation was conducted, and so they likely, if it had not been retracted, would have been [in] significantly more communication with Taos Pueblo and with others.”
The letter states, “Taos Pueblo hopes the State of New Mexico’s Office of the State Engineer will improve upon this moving into the future.”
Coincidentally, before the webinar Riseley-White said members
of the ISC staff had been talking about ways to improve the manner in which projects of this sort might be handled in the future, and that included the possibility of looking into ways some of the rules might be changed. “We, at the Interstate Stream Commission, have been fully following the existing weather modification statute and associated rules, which don’t specify the need for consultation with tribes, pueblos and nations,” she said. “However, we, and the public, have a number of concerns about the existing rules and think that they ultimately would need to be revisited. That’s something that may come about in the next year or so.”
Riseley-White said she also wanted clarify something that arose during this process: It was the impression among some members of the public that the
ISC was conducting the weather modification project. “That is not at all the case,” she said. “We are tasked by statute with evaluating applications for weather mod, but we were not actually the project proponent.”
The Taos Pueblo letter goes on the explain that “weather modification projects are also of a great concern to Taos Pueblo. Cloud seeding, although carried out for many years, has not had many long-term studies conducted to identify negative impacts. Research suggests silver iodide is toxic to microbiota, of which all of life is dependent. Laboratory chemical databases list the compound as a heavy metal with known toxic effects. Safety and handling instructions stress limiting contact and exposure.
“Weather is a dynamic system
which we don’t fully understand and outcomes not intended could occur with disastrous impacts. The citing of generators used for cloud seeding project was also never fully disclosed and is a concern of the Taos Pueblo.”
The tribal leadership concluded the letter stating it is “opposed to cloud seeding or any other type of weather modification project.”
On Jan. 26, the ISC will begin evaluating another cloud seeding application targeting southern New Mexico, Riseley-White said. As part of that effort, she said the commission is asking the applicant to reach out to the Mescalero Apache Tribe. She added that, even though it is not required by the current rule, the ISC plans to work directly with any Native American communities affected by similar projects.