Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 67.djvu/595

 67 S T A T. ]

PUBLIC LAW 256-AUG. 13, 1953

Public Law 256

559 CHAPTER 426

AN ACT

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To create a committee to study and evaluate public and private experiments in weather modification.

Be it enacted ty the Senate and House of Representatives United States of America in Congress assembled,

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August 13, 1953 [S.285]

of the c^u^!^^' modifiEvaluation.

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE AND POLICY

Eesearch and experimentation in the field of weather modification and control have attained the stage at which the application of scientific advances in this field appears to be practical. The effect of the use of measures for the control of weather phenomena upon the social, economic, and political structures of today, and upon national security, cannot now be determined. I t is a field in which unknown factors are involved. I t is reasonable to anticipate, however, that modification and control of weather, if effective on a large scale, would cause profound changes in our present way of life and would result in vast and far-reaching benefits to agriculture, industry, commerce, and the general welfare and common defense. While the ultimate extent to which weather modification and control may be utilized is speculative, the application of such measures without proper safeguards, sufficient data and accurate information may result in inadequate or excessive precipitation; may cause catastrophic droughts, storms, floods, and other phenomena with consequent loss of life and property, injury to navigable streams and other channels of interstate and foreign commerce, injury to water supplies for municipal, irrigation, and industrial purposes, and injury to sources of hydroelectric power; may otherwise impede the production and transportation of goods and services for domestic consumption and export and for the national defense; and may otherwise adversely affect the general welfare and common defense. Thorough experimentation and full-scale operations in weather modification and control will of necessity affect areas extending across State and possibly across national boundaries. The Congress, therefore, recognizes that experimentation and application of such measures are matters of national and international concern. Accordingly, it is hereby declared to be the policy of the Congress, in order to effect the maximum benefit which may result from experiments and operations designed to modify and control weather, to correlate and evaluate the information derived from such activity and to cooperate with the several States and the duly authorized officials thereof with respect to such activity, all to the end of encouraging the intelligent experimentation 9,nd the beneficial development of weather modification and control, preventing its harmful and indiscriminate exercise, and fostering sound economic conditions in the public interest. CREATION OF ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON WEATHER CONTROL

SEC. 2. There is hereby established a national committee to be known as the Advisory Committee on Weather Control (hereinafter called the "Committee"). SEC. 3. The Committee shall make a complete study and evaluation of public and private experiments in weather control for the'purpose of determining the extent to which the United States should experiment with, engage in, or regulate activities designed to control weather conditions.

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