Rain Enhancement Technologies' Upper Yampa Weather Enhancement Pilot Advances Toward Final Permit Approval After Colorado Public Hearing
Key Highlights
- ➤Upper Yampa pilot clears public hearing with no objections, advancing toward final permit approval
- ➤Operations targeted for November 2026, pending final Colorado permit approval
- ➤Pilot targets Yamcolo Reservoir basin across up to 192,000 acres
- ➤Colorado Water Conservation Board plans to fund the one-year pilot
- ➤Utah La Sal operations delivered greater than 20% snow water equivalent increase in 2025-26
Expert Statements
Randy Seidl, CEO of Rain Enhancement Technologies
“A public hearing with no objections tells us that the people closest to this watershed, from water managers to land managers to local officials, understand what the WETA does and how carefully we operate it.”
Randy Seidl, CEO of Rain Enhancement Technologies
“We appreciate the support of the CWCB, the Upper Yampa Water Conservancy District, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, and the Colorado River District in getting us here. With the permit moving forward, we're preparing to install in November and look forward to giving Colorado independently validated results to evaluate.”
Scott Morris, VP of Engineering at Rain Enhancement Technologies
“Beyond the reservoirs downstream, this site gives us a chance to benefit the land right around it.”
Scott Morris, VP of Engineering at Rain Enhancement Technologies
“We'll be operating to provide some enhancement to Lake Avery, which is right near the site, and we expect more rainfall and snowpack over the surrounding wilderness areas, which should benefit the forests and the wildlife there.”
Andrew Rickert, Program Manager for the CWCB's Weather Modification Program
“Public hearings are an important part of how Colorado permits weather modification programs, giving local communities and agencies a chance to review a proposed operation and raise any concerns before a permit is issued.”
Andrew Rickert, Program Manager for the CWCB's Weather Modification Program
“The RET team laid out its responses to the state's permit criteria clearly, and our next step is to finalize the permit so the pilot can begin, and the results can be evaluated.”
NAPLES, FL / ACCESS Newswire / October 21, 2026 / Rain Enhancement Technologies Holdco, Inc. (NASDAQ:RAIN) ("RET" or the "Company"), a leading provider of ionization rain and snowfall generation technology, today announced that its weather enhancement pilot in Colorado's Upper Yampa River Basin has completed the state's required public hearing with no objections raised. The hearing, held October 14, 2026, by the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB), is a key step in Colorado's weather modification permitting process and moves the permit for the one-year pilot to final approval, with operations targeted to begin in November 2026.
The pilot, first announced in July, will deploy the WETA (Weather Enhancement Technology Array), RET's ground-based, solar-powered ionization system, in the Flat Tops area of Northwest Colorado. The WETA can operate year-round, enhancing snowpack in winter and rainfall from spring through fall. Under a statement of work between RET and the Upper Yampa Water Conservancy District, the CWCB is planning to fund the pilot, with the District serving as fiscal agent. The pilot targets the drainage basin of the Yamcolo Reservoir, one of the District's primary water supply facilities, with an area of expected impact of up to 192,000 acres. The expanded target area reflects detailed modeling of the final installation site, which showed wider distribution than initially expected after the pilot was first announced.
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