Title
Consider recommendations regarding the Santa Barbara County Cloud Seeding Program for Cachuma, Gibraltar, Jameson and Twitchell Reservoirs, as follows:
Acting as the Board of Directors, Water Agency:
a) Approve the 2022-2023 Cloud Seeding Program and authorize the Chair to execute the Agreement for Services of Independent Contractor with North American Weather Consultants (not a local vendor) for cloud seeding for the period of December 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023 unless earlier terminated, in an amount not to exceed $370,800.00;
b) Consider the 2022 Addendum to the Mitigated Negative Declaration 13NGD-00000-00011 which the Board adopted on October 15, 2013; and
c) After considering the Mitigated Negative Declaration and the 2022 Addendum to the Mitigated Negative Declaration, determine pursuant to California Environmental Quality Act Guidelines Section 15162(a) that no subsequent Environmental Impact Report or Negative Declaration is required for this project because: 1) No substantial changes are proposed in the project which require major revisions of the Mitigated Negative Declaration; 2) No substantial changes have occurred with respect to the circumstances under which the project is undertaken which require major revisions of the Mitigated Negative Declaration; and 3) No new information of substantial importance concerning the project’s significant effects or mitigation measures exists which were not known and could not have been known with the exercise of reasonable diligence at the time that the Mitigated Negative Declaration was adopted on October 15, 2013.