Colorado
Colorado has spent $360M preserving its history since 1990. Here are some success stories.
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BUENA VISTA
For decades, Avery-Parsons Elementary in Buena Vista had a building problem.
It wasn’t the school, but the old gymnasium next door.
The school district owned the McGinnis Gym, but it was a wreck. And the deeply underfunded district was at a loss for what to do with it.
The long, brick building that had once been Buena Vista’s main gathering space was not only an eyesore but it was filled with asbestos and lead. It was built in 1936 through the Public Works Administration program that employed Americans during the worst days of the Great Depression. But it fell out of use in 1986 and was condemned in 2008.
In the decades since, water had seeped into the roof and the cancer-causing asbestos in the drywall and joints. Lead paint covered 5,000 square feet of the walls and floors.
The roof wasn’t even attached anymore, said Katy Welter, a Buena Vista resident and co-founder, with her husband, Rick Bieterman, of Watershed, Inc., a nonprofit that restores buildings for public benefit. “And it sat, like, 50 feet from the elementary school, so it was perilously close to there being an asbestos spill on the campus. It was posing a threat to our most sensitive population.”
The McGinnis Gym was also a repository for memories created over the 50 years it was in use, Welter said. “People held reunions and funerals and weddings and proms, and nobody wanted to see it torn down, but they couldn’t figure out what to do with it.”
So when the school district put out a call for help with the gym in 2021, she did what any transactional lawyer, owner of a working hay farm and mother of two kids under age 5 would have done: She ran through her knowledge of historic preservation, looked up state and federal funding sources for such projects and told the school, “I think we might be able to do something.”
FIRST PHOTO: The outside of the recently open and restored, 1930s McGinnis Gym in Buena Vista. This was a 2-year restoration campaign accomplished by Watershed. SECOND PHOTO: Katy Welter, the president of Watershed, walks with daughter, Millie, 4, inside of the McGinnis Gym on Nov. 11. (Anna Stonehouse, Special to The Colorado Sun)
There began a two-and-a-half-year project that included gutting the building and making it usable again. The total cost was around $3 million, said Welter, contributed to by the Environmental Protection Agency brownfields grant program, the Colorado State Historical Fund, the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade historic preservation tax credits and the Buena Vista School District.
But when Watershed and the school district turned it back to the community Nov. 11 it wasn’t a “new” McGinnis Gym.
It was renovated, toxin-free and gleaming, but it retained its original character. Now peals of laughter will bounce off the walls as kids race in for afterschool programs. The town rec department will use it for things like pickleball. It’ll be a space for the performing arts. And it’s already doing one of historic preservation’s most important jobs, said Pat Howlett, president of the Trinidad-Las Animas County Chamber of Commerce, another beneficiary of historic preservation funding in Colorado.
“When you start resurrecting some of these incredible buildings, it sets the tone in a community for what’s possible,” he said. That’s vital to rural towns like Trinidad, which has struggled to shake its historic boom-and-bust economy. “You can see what a town is investing in by driving around,” he added. Projects like McGinnis Gym, and the East Street School in Trinidad, “bring hope to a community. They reverse trends in a community, and they show the way forward to a community.”
Since Colorado’s State Historical Fund was created in 1990, History Colorado has awarded $365,439,294 in historic preservation grants and the Office of International Trade and Economic Development has issued $57 million in historic preservation tax credits to projects in each of the state’s 64 counties. Some are further along than others. But many are proving what proponents have always known: When you pour time, money and passion into carefully preserving history, things that might appear dead can breathe new life into communities.
Not just for asbestos-ridden buildings
In 2023, History Colorado awarded $11,041,369 to 119 historic preservation projects through taxes on gaming in three historic mountain towns: Black Hawk, Cripple Creek and Central City.
A total of $5,947,841 was spent on 62 projects in rural communities. The grants ranged from $50,000 to $250,000 in general grants to mini grants of $50,000 or less.
Rebecca Goodwin, preservation officer of Otero County’s historic preservation board, urges people to avoid thinking of historic preservation as “just about buildings.”
“It’s also about sites and landscapes and structures and all of the things that go with it,” she said. “For example, we did a project to document an African American homestead community south of Manzanola in Otero County, called The Dry, and there are no buildings remaining.”
Without physical evidence, The Dry’s history had been largely forgotten. So Otero County contracted with archaeologist Michelle Slaughter to work with the University of Denver graduate program on an archeological field school and public outreach through a youth archaeology workshop, Goodwin said. The goal was “to let kids see what archeologists do and to relay why it matters that if you see something on the ground you don’t pick it up. Like a piece of pottery or small toy by a homestead. Pick that up and lose it, and now you’ve lost the story.”
— Pat Howlett, president of the Trinidad-Las Animas County Chamber of Commerce
The State Historical Fund also funded the development of a National Register of Historic Places nomination for the Valley View-Hillcrest Cemetery in Rocky Ford that was once two cemeteries that were built between the 1890s and 1920s and laid out in two completely different designs. One was laid out in a pattern of overlapping ovals and the other in a grid, Goodwin said.
Otero County wanted the cemetery preserved “because the contrasting designs tell the story of what was happening in the country at the time,” Goodwin added. “But more importantly, we wanted a national register designation because there were a lot of pioneers and business people and notables there, but also a lot of early Hispanics and a very large Japanese American section with over 250 burial sites, many with Japanese writing on them,” she added.
In the past year, History Colorado awarded other structureless projects. A $178,000 grant went to Historic St. Elmo and Chalk Creek Canyon Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to preserving the ghost town of St. Elmo and various other historic sites in Chaffee County’s Chalk Creek Canyon.
Another $187,316 is helping Dolores River Boating Advocates conduct an ethnographic study to identify sites along a 241-mile span of the Dolores River associated with Native American Tribes with ancestral homelands.
And $114,636 went to The Community Foundation of the San Luis Valley, which we’ll get to later.
But all preservation is “basically about people,” Goodwin said. Which includes another person who used historic preservation benefits to revive a key building in Leadville.
Fancy cabins named for female sex workers and an event center for quinceañeras
For decades, Nan Anderson and her husband Dave have been preserving the past in projects across the country through their architectural firm, Anderson Hallas Architects.
Many of them are internationally renowned, including a refresh of the visitor center displaying 148-million-year-old fossils at Dinosaur National Monument, the 40 National Register Historic Structures project in the Denver Mountain Parks System, and a modernization project in the Colorado capitol building’s legislative chambers that retained its original character, among others.
But several years ago, the Andersons discovered a different kind of project: a beat-down, boarded-up railroad depot just off Harrison Avenue, the main drag in Leadville.
It’s called Freight and they transformed it into a rustic-chic event space with several cabins for rent with help from OEDIT’s historic preservation tax credit incentive.
They first saw it on a walk with their grandchildren in 2017, and acting on instinct, they broke in.
“We have kind of a history with that, because of our preservation work,” Nan said. Once inside, they fell in love.
Nevermind the filthy interior, the floor riddled with holes or the fact that there was no running water, sewer, electricity or a real ceiling. What they saw was an opportunity to bring a building that had been crucial to life in Leadville in the 1880s back to service in a way that current residents and visitors could appreciate.
To fund the project, they invested $367,000 of their money to buy the old lumberyard on which the depot sat, plus the depot and a couple of outbuildings. Cleaning the depot, fitting it with modern utilities and restoring it cost around $2 million. And they choose not to disclose the cost of the handful of cabins they built, each honoring a female sex worker from the 1800s and rentable for a reasonable nightly price, because they created those without help from OEDIT.
OEDIT awarded them $435,000 in historic preservation tax credits for qualifying rehabilitation expenses on the depot. Nan said rural projects like theirs receive 35% of the expenditures back as a tax rebate compared to 25% if they’re in urban areas.
“But frankly, it’s really hard to make a business proposition for having enough income in the hinterland to justify such a huge expenditure,” she said.
Yet Freight is a tribute to a time gone by and a place Leadville residents come to dance, watch ski movies, get married, discuss important issues, and, for the many nonprofits that keep the community up and running, to hold fundraisers in a beautifully restored event center (the depot) for free or at a discounted rate.
That’s the beauty of Freight for Adam Ducharme, tourism and economic development director for the town of Leadville.
FIRST PHOTO: Nan Anderson, co-owner of Freight, and CEO Amber Rossman, make up a bed in one of The Freight’s cabins on Nov. 14. SECOND PHOTO: A view of a fully restored event space at Freight. (Anna Stonehouse, Special to The Colorado Sun)
“We actually need three Freights. I can’t have enough Freights in our community,” he said. “The in-kind services that they donate is equivalent to, like, 50 grand a year. They host everything from quinceañeras to a public forum to discuss issues that affect our whole community. I just think it’s an incredible space that is set up to do so many different things, and the fact that they’re also a very successful hotel and event space is just brilliant.”
The real tally of in-kind services Freight gave Leadville in 2024 is far greater, according to CEO Amber Rossman. There were 22 nonprofit events in 2024, for which beneficiaries paid $7,950, while the market rate was $61,750, she said.
“Additionally, we gave significant discounts to the local school district and local government,” by holding six events for which beneficiaries paid $2,150, compared to the market rate of $14,000.
The money harkens back to something Sara Kappel, preservation tax credits and incentives specialist for the State Historic Preservation Office, said about the return on investment for historic preservation. Several studies have shown “in general, it’s one dollar for every four dollars spent.”
Funding pieces of the whole
In the years since OEDIT started the historic tax credit program, it has helped fund projects in every corner of Colorado.
Some have seen quick success and others are pieces of a whole that will take longer to bring to fruition.
One of the latter is the People’s Market in San Luis, known formerly as the R&R Market. For eight generations the little store built in 1857 was up and running. But in 2022, its last proprietors retired and turned it over to the Acequia Institute, a nonprofit with plans to make it both a thriving store and health hub for the community.
The sale went through with funding from state and federal grants as well as private sources. Part of the vision was to have local farmers grow crops they could sell in the market, so residents could have fresh food without having to travel to other towns to get it.
But renovation of the building was stalled by various problems including black mold, asbestos, and plumbing problems, said Jason Medina, executive director of the Community Foundation of the San Luis Valley.
Project workers “pulled out all of the refrigeration because there had been some stuff that was leaking and they found asbestos in some of the floor tiles, so abatement for all of that happened,” he added. But the renovation problems continued until “they had to completely stop and start all over.”
By October, progress had been made on the market. But it still needed money to complete the renovation. Medina said that could come from the State Historical Fund, but only if the new owners “make sure what they’re going to do will be completely historically accurate.”
In order to do that, they need to know exactly what the original store looked like. So the Acequia Institute applied for a State Historical Fund preservation grant and was awarded $114,336 to create comprehensive construction documents that will guide the ongoing development.
The end goal is “to rejuvenate one of the state’s earliest, and most unique Spanish-influenced communities, provide a roadmap for other rural communities looking to build self-sufficiency and to give us healthy food options,” Medina said. “There are literally no food options left within a 60-mile radius besides the Family Dollar in San Luis and the Dollar General in Fort Garland, where everything is canned or frozen or full of preservatives. ”
An arts school for artists of all kinds
A hundred miles east of San Luis is one of those successful projects.
At least that’s how it appears on the outside, and what you would imagine if you knew the person behind it.
Dana Crawford is known as a development genius, a preservation guru and in her own words a “nice nag” who gets things done. In her six-decade career, she has redeveloped some of Colorado’s most historic buildings. Think Larimer Square. Think Union Station. Think East Street School in Trinidad, which functioned as an elementary school from 1919 until it closed in 2002, only to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007 and transformed into housing geared toward artists in 2023.
Lisa Evans, a longtime friend and colleague of Crawford and manager of the East Street School project, said Crawford saw the building during a trip to Trinidad around 2018 and saw its potential to “get a new lease on life.” She connected with the RedLine Contemporary Arts Center in Denver through artist Clark Richert, and brought them in as partners. When she learned that the school sat in one of OEDIT’s Opportunity Zones, she went to Four Points Funding, which invests in the zones, “while knowing she was also going to go for the historic preservation tax credits,” Evans said.
FIRST PHOTO: The East Street School in Trinidad was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007. Opened in 1919, the building stood idle for 20 years until 2023 when developers transformed it into 15 live-work units, artist studio rentals and a culinary arts space. SECOND PHOTO: Shelby Smith brings in a load of clothing as she moves into her loft apartment in the building. (Mike Sweeney, Special to The Colorado Sun)
The project received a $4 million grant from Colorado Creative Industries, another OEDIT program. The rest of the $9.3 million has been coming in different chunks, including a $1.9 million loan from a new market tax credit lender and $1 million in historic preservation tax credits for phase one, rehabilitating the roof, exterior walls and first floor, according to Evans.
Phase two included completion of the second floor interior, outdoor landscaping and “all of the horizontal work around the building,” Evans said, for which the project received another historic tax credit of $575,000. Four Points Funding brought $1.8 million in equity.
“In very simple terms, the construction costs of the project are double what they would have been in Denver. So if it weren’t for the grants and tax credits this building would have been demoed and gone to the dump,” she added.
Instead, it has become a version of what Crawford envisioned, if not the exact thing.
It’s a two-story building preserved, like all qualifying projects, according to the Interior Department’s historic preservation standards and guidelines.
It was built with artists in mind, so some of the 15, private live/work units have an elevated platform where residents can put things like a potter’s wheel or a painter’s easel. Although “artist” at the East Street School has many different meanings.
Jake Liuzzo, the property manager, said “the vision has been slow to be realized.” What he means is currently only two artists are living in the apartments; “the rest are working-class folks: a doctor, a dentist, a short-order cook and someone in auto detailing.”
If it weren’t for the grants and tax credits this building would have been demoed and gone to the dump.
— Lisa Evans, Manager of the East Street School project
But Evans said a doctor is in “the medical arts.” Carry that forward and a dentist is in the “oral hygiene arts.” A short-order cook? Culinary artist. Auto-detailer? Car painter.
And one of the unexpected benefits of the school is that because landlords can’t discriminate when choosing tenants, anyone is legally entitled to live there.
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That opens up clean, safe, affordable housing in the form of 550- to 1020-square-foot loft apartments and studios that run from $950 to $1,450 per month in a town where much of the available housing “is old and certainly not up to what a lot of folks want,” Liuzzo said.
“The units are gorgeous and it’s a really pretty building,” he added. “So it’s serving folks that are working class with a nice place to live. The leasing company and RedLine are also incredibly responsive to fixing anything that has gone wrong.” And it’s still fulfilling the original vision, just not in a linear way.
“A very diverse bunch” of artists have come through East Street, Liuzzo said. “One fellow from the African American arts community was in need of housing, so he ended up getting a space.” Currently a Native American artist lives there, “and getting away, for him, is a big deal,” Liuzzo added. A traveling mural painter “who wanted to see some real mountains and do some real painting,” came through. And if you want to see artists’ work-in-progress, you can drop in and cruise through day studios on the lower level.
“It’s been kind of a neat gift for Trinidad in that way,” Liuzzo said.
Rain Enhancement Technologies (NASDAQ:RAIN) began operations of its first U.S. Weather Enhancement Technology Array (WETA) in Gill, Colorado, after the Colorado Water Conservation Board approved a weather modification permit on November 11, 2025. The permit is valid through October 31, 2026 with a potential five-year renewal. The solar-powered, chemical-free WETA can cover up to 360 square miles (≈230,000 acres) in Weld County and cites peer-reviewed trials indicating potential rainfall increases of 15–18%. The system will operate under strict oversight with real-time monitoring, automatic suspension during National Weather Service severe-weather warnings, and annual target-control evaluations and reporting requirements.
Rain Enhancement Technologies (NASDAQ:RAIN) ha avviato le operazioni della sua prima Weather Enhancement Technology Array (WETA) negli Stati Uniti a Gill, Colorado, dopo che la Colorado Water Conservation Board ha approvato un permesso di modifica del tempo l’11 novembre 2025. Il permesso è valido fino al 31 ottobre 2026 con una potenziale rinnovo di cinque anni. Il WETA alimentato a energia solare e privo di sostanze chimiche può coprire fino a 360 miglia quadrate (≈230.000 acri) nella contea di Weld e cita studi sottoposti a peer review che indicano potenziali aumenti delle precipitazioni del 15–18%. Il sistema opererà sotto stretta supervisione con monitoraggio in tempo reale, sospensione automatica durante gli avvisi di tempo meteorologico estremo del National Weather Service e requisiti annuali di valutazione e reportistica sugli obiettivi.
Rain Enhancement Technologies (NASDAQ:RAIN) inauguró operaciones de su primera Red de Tecnología de Mejora Meteorológica (WETA) en Gill, Colorado, tras que la Colorado Water Conservation Board aprobó un permiso de modificación climática el 11 de noviembre de 2025. El permiso es válido hasta el 31 de octubre de 2026 con una renovación potencial de cinco años. El WETA, alimentado por energía solar y sin sustancias químicas, puede cubrir hasta 360 millas cuadradas (≈230,000 acres) en el condado de Weld y cita ensayos revisados por pares que indican posibles aumentos de las precipitaciones del 15–18%. El sistema operará bajo supervisión estricta con monitorización en tiempo real, suspensión automática durante avisos de tormentas severas del Servicio Meteorológico Nacional y requisitos anuales de evaluaciones de control de objetivos e informes.
Rain Enhancement Technologies (나스닥:RAIN)은 2025년 11월 11일 콜로라도 주 Gill에서 첫 미국 기상 개선 기술 어레이(WETA)의 운용을 시작했다. 이는 콜로라도 워터 컨서베이션 보드가 기상 수정 허가를 승인한 데 따른 것이다. 허가 유효 기간은 2026년 10월 31일까지이며 최대 다섯 년의 재연장이 가능하다. 태양광으로 작동하고 화학 물질이 전혀 없는 WETA는 Weld 카운티에서 최대 360 제곱마일(약 230,000에이커)를 커버할 수 있으며 동료 심사를 거친 연구에서 강수량이 15–18% 증가할 가능성을 시사한다. 시스템은 실시간 모니터링, 미국 기상청의 악천후 경보 시 자동 정지, 연간 목표 제어 평가 및 보고 요건이 있는 엄격한 감독 하에 작동한다.
Rain Enhancement Technologies (NASDAQ:RAIN) a commencé ses opérations avec son premier réseau d’amélioration météorologique (WETA) aux États-Unis à Gill, Colorado, après que le Colorado Water Conservation Board a approuvé un permis de modification météorologique le 11 novembre 2025. Le permis est valable jusqu’au 31 octobre 2026 avec un renouvellement potentiel de cinq ans. Le WETA, alimenté par énergie solaire et sans produits chimiques, peut couvrir jusqu’à 360 miles carrés (≈230 000 acres) dans le comté de Weld et cite des essais évalués par des pairs indiquant des augmentations potentielles des précipitations de 15–18%. Le système fonctionnera sous une surveillance stricte avec un suivi en temps réel, une suspension automatique lors des alertes météorologiques sévères du National Weather Service et des exigences annuelles d’évaluation et de reporting des objectifs.
Rain Enhancement Technologies (NASDAQ:RAIN) nahm den Betrieb seines ersten US-amerikanischen Weather Enhancement Technology Array (WETA) in Gill, Colorado, auf, nachdem das Colorado Water Conservation Board am 11. November 2025 eine Genehmigung für eine Wettermodifikation erteilt hatte. Die Genehmigung gilt bis zum 31. Oktober 2026 mit einer möglichen fünfjährigen Verlängerung. Das solarbetriebene, chemiefreie WETA-System kann in Weld County bis zu 360 Quadratmeilen (≈230.000 Acres) abdecken und verweist auf peer‑reviewte Studien, die potenzielle Niederschlagssteigerungen von 15–18% anzeigen. Das System wird unter strenger Aufsicht betrieben, mit Echtzeitüberwachung, automatischer Aussetzung bei schweren Wetterwarnungen des National Weather Service sowie jährlichen Zielkontrollbewertungen und Berichtsanforderungen.
بدأت Rain Enhancement Technologies (المدرجة في ناسداك: RAIN) تشغيل أول شبكة لتقنيات تحسين الطقس (WETA) لها في Gill بولاية كولورادو، بعد أن وافقت لجنة الحفاظ على المياه في كولورادو على ترخيص تعديل الطقس في 11 نوفمبر 2025. الترخيص ساري حتى 31 أكتوبر 2026 مع إمكانية تجديد لمدة خمس سنوات. يمكن لـ WETA القائم على الطاقة الشمسية والخالٍ من المواد الكيميائية أن يغطي حتى 360 ميلاً مربعاً (حوالي 230,000 فدان) في مقاطعة ويلد ويشير إلى تجارب مراجعة من الأقران تشير إلى زيادة محتملة في الأمطار بنسبة 15–18%. سيعمل النظام تحت إشراف صارم مع رصد في الوقت الفعلي، وتعطيل تلقائي أثناء إنذارات الخدمة الوطنية للأرصاد الجوية، ومتطلبات تقييم وتقارير سنوية حول الأهداف.
Positive
- Permit approval for Colorado installation through 10/31/2026
- WETA can cover 360 sq miles (~230,000 acres)
- 15–18% potential rainfall increase cited from peer-reviewed trials
- Autonomous solar-powered, chemical-free operation
Negative
- Initial permit is short-term (expires 10/31/2026) and needs renewal
- Operations subject to automatic suspension during National Weather Service severe-weather warnings
- U.S. effectiveness not yet demonstrated; data collection required per permit
Insights
RAIN’s WETA begins U.S. operations in Colorado under a one-year permit; potential modest rainfall uplift and regulatory oversight matter most.
The system is now operational in Gill, Colorado, under a Weather Modification Permit valid through
Regulatory controls include automatic suspension during National Weather Service severe-weather warnings, real-time monitoring, coordination with local emergency management, and mandated annual target-control evaluations and periodic performance reports to the Colorado Water Conservation Board. These conditions create clear data collection and safety gates that limit operational risk and provide a formal performance record.
Key items to watch over the next 12 months include the permit performance reports, the annual target-control evaluation, and any permit renewal decision; the permit end-date is
This deployment targets agricultural water supply, promising measurable coverage and a stated
The WETA installation is positioned to affect up to 360 square miles of agricultural land in Weld County and is framed as a tool to supplement water for cropping and livestock operations; the release notes Colorado agriculture uses roughly
Operational characteristics—autonomous solar power and minimal maintenance—could lower ongoing costs if performance metrics validate the technology. The permit requires annual reports and target-control evaluations, which will produce the empirical evidence needed to assess whether the system yields agronomic or economic benefit across the stated 230,000 acres.
Concrete near-term monitors are the mandated performance reports and the annual evaluation due within the permit year ending
Company’s WETA Ionization Technology Begins Operations in Gill, Colorado, Marking State’s First Warm Weather Modification Program
NAPLES, FL / ACCESS Newswire / November 11, 2025 / Rain Enhancement Technologies Holdco, Inc. (NASDAQ:RAIN) (“RAIN” or the “Company”), a leading provider of ionization rainfall generation technology, today announced it has commenced operations of its first U.S. installation following approval of a Weather Modification Permit from the State of Colorado’s Water Conservation Board. The Company’s Weather Enhancement Technology Array (WETA) system, installed in Gill, Colorado, in October 2025, marks the state’s first warm weather modification program and is now operational under a permit valid through October 31, 2026, with the potential for a five-year renewal. The installation can enhance up to 360 square miles of agricultural land in Weld County, where the technology has the potential to increase rainfall by 15
“This first U.S. installation represents a transformative milestone for Rain Enhancement Technologies as we bring our proven ionization technology to American agricultural communities,” said Randy Seidl, CEO of Rain Enhancement Technologies. “Colorado’s rigorous evaluation process and forward-thinking approach to water resource management validate the potential of our technology to address water scarcity challenges. We’re proud to pioneer the state’s first warm weather modification program at a time when innovative water solutions are critically needed.”
The ground-based WETA system operates by using electrical charge to create naturally occurring ionized aerosols, which then travel to cloud layers where they enhance condensation and stimulate precipitation. Unlike Colorado’s traditional cold weather cloud seeding that uses silver iodide, RAIN’s chemical-free, solar-powered approach harnesses natural atmospheric processes.
“After years of working with this groundbreaking technology internationally, it’s very exciting to see the growing interest in our solution to address the ongoing water shortage crisis,” said Scott Morris, Chief Technical Officer of Rain Enhancement Technologies. “With the first of our US installations to be deployed, we’re excited to demonstrate the real-world impact of ionization rainfall generation technology at scale. The Gill installation represents years of engineering refinement and will operate autonomously using solar power, making it both environmentally sustainable and cost-effective.”
This marks Colorado’s first warm weather seeding operation, differentiating it from existing cold weather programs in the state that use silver iodide to enhance snowpack. RAIN’s ionization technology has demonstrated effectiveness in warm weather conditions through international deployments, including a six-year trial in Oman’s Hajar Mountains, where results were published by the Royal Statistical Society showing statistically significant rainfall increases. The Colorado installation operates under strict regulatory oversight, including automatic suspension protocols during National Weather Service severe weather warnings, real-time weather monitoring capabilities, and coordination with local emergency management officials.
“We’re encouraged by the potential of this innovative technology to supplement water resources for Colorado’s agricultural communities,” said Andrew Rickert, Weather Modification Program Manager with the Colorado Water Conservation Board. “This program will provide valuable data on warm weather modification effectiveness while maintaining our rigorous safety and environmental standards. Rain Enhancement Technologies’ approach represents a new tool in our comprehensive water management strategy.”
The Colorado installation comes as western U.S. agriculture faces persistent drought conditions that have forced farmers to fallow fields, reduce livestock herds, and seek innovative water security solutions. Colorado’s agricultural sector, which consumes approximately
As part of the permit requirements, RAIN will conduct annual target-control evaluations, submit periodic performance reports to project sponsors, and provide detailed annual reports to the Colorado Water Conservation Board. The solar-powered system operates autonomously with minimal maintenance requirements and produces no environmental residue through its chemical-free ionization process.
About Rain Enhancement Technologies, Inc.
Rain Enhancement Technologies was founded to provide the world with reliable access to water, one of life’s most important resources. To achieve this mission, RAIN aims to develop, manufacture, and commercialize ionization rainfall generation technology. This weather modification technology seeks to provide the world with reliable access to water and transform business, society, and the planet for the better. The Company is also developing applications for fog mitigation and snow enhancement to expand weather modification capabilities beyond rainfall generation. To learn more, go to www.investor.rainenhancement.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
The disclosure herein includes certain statements that are not historical facts but are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements generally are accompanied by words such as “believe,” “may,” “will,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “expect,” “should,” “would,” “plan,” “project,” “forecast,” “predict,” “potential,” “seem,” “seek,” “future,” “outlook,” and similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, (1) statements regarding expected benefits of the Company’s technology in Colorado; (2) references with respect to the anticipated rainfall increases; (3) references to permit renewals and future installations; (4) the projected effectiveness of the WETA system; and (5) potential expansion of operations. These statements are based on various assumptions and on the current expectations of RAIN’s management and are not predictions of actual performance. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties as set forth in the Company’s filings with the SEC. If any of these risks materialize or assumptions prove incorrect, actual results could differ materially from the results implied by these forward-looking statements. There may be additional risks that RAIN does not presently know or currently believes are immaterial. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. RAIN undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made except as required by law or applicable regulation.
Media Contact
Linda Maynard
Rain Enhancement Technologies
Phone: (617) 869-4832
Email: linda@rainenhancement.com
SOURCE: Rain Enhancement Technologies
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire
FAQ
What did RAIN announce about its first U.S. installation in Colorado (NASDAQ:RAIN) on November 11, 2025?
RAIN announced its WETA system in Gill, Colorado began operations under a permit valid through October 31, 2026 with potential five-year renewal.
How much land can Rain Enhancement Technologies’ WETA cover in Weld County, Colorado (RAIN)?
The WETA installation can enhance up to 360 square miles, roughly 230,000 acres of agricultural land.
What rainfall gains does RAIN cite for its ionization technology in the Colorado permit announcement?
The company cites peer-reviewed trial results showing potential rainfall increases of 15–18%.
How long is the Colorado weather modification permit for RAIN’s WETA system effective (RAIN)?
The permit is effective through October 31, 2026 and includes the possibility of a five-year renewal.
What operational safeguards and reporting does the Colorado permit require for RAIN’s WETA (NASDAQ:RAIN)?
Requirements include real-time weather monitoring, automatic suspension during National Weather Service severe-weather warnings, annual target-control evaluations, and periodic performance reports.
Is RAIN’s WETA chemical-based and how is it powered in Colorado (RAIN)?
The WETA system is described as chemical-free and operates autonomously using solar power.
Colorado
2 Colorado Tribes fire back at state, governor after court ruling walls off online sports betting
The leaders of two Native American reservations in southern Colorado recently called the state’s ban on their ability to partake in online sports betting an extension of the “troubling legacy” of broken agreements between governments and the Tribes.
A recent ruling by a federal court judge on the issue, along with a petroleum spill that has aggravated the relationship between the state and the Tribes, has apparently reopened old wounds. Healing them may happen in the coming weeks if the two sides can talk.
A money matter
Colorado voters narrowly approved legalized sports gambling here in November 2019. The amount of betting and the amount of tax paid to the state from it has grown substantially since then. In September alone, bettors from across the nation spent more than $99 million online with casinos in Central City, Black Hawk and Cripple Creek.
Reservation-based casinos are important to Native American economies. In 2023, tribally owned gaming operations nationally generated about $42 billion in revenue. Understandably, those reservations seek to maximize that cash flow.
In Colorado, both the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute Indian Tribes started sports betting platforms through their own casinos six months after voters gave online gambling the green light. The Southern Ute Tribe launched the Sky Ute SportsBook through its Sky Ute Casino in Ignacio. The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe started its own platform at its Ute Mountain Casino in Towaoc.
According to court documents, the vendor for the Sky Ute Sportsbook received a letter from the Colorado Division of Gaming (CODOG) two weeks after it started.
“[W]e believe that your company is participating in sports betting in Colorado on behalf of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe without complying with Colorado gaming law,” the letter stated.
Later, the vendor working for the Ute Mountain Utes’ operation received the same letter.
The gaming division advised the Tribes to apply for the state betting license, the same license that all other Colorado casinos are required to obtain. With that license would come a promise to pay 10% of net sports betting revenue to the state. The casinos declined, shut down their sports books and sued instead.
“The Tribes claim that Colorado’s actions made their sports betting operations challenging and more expensive,” Judge Gordon Gallagher summarized in last month’s ruling, “effectively freezing them out of the sports betting market.”
Last month, Gallagher dismissed the case.
“Colorado explicitly authorized sports betting, a Class III game, throughout the state,” the Tribes complained in a joint press release following the judge’s decision. “But the State immediately stymied the ability of the Tribes to engage in that activity despite clear authorization under the Gaming Compacts, and instead, elected to benefit out-of-state gaming interests over its relationship with the Tribes. When the Tribes sought to challenge that conduct, the Administration chose to hide behind its immunity. These actions by the Polis Administration in refusing to honor the Gaming Compacts entered into with Colorado’s two federally-recognized Tribes represents one of the lowest points in State-Tribal relations in recent history.”
History
The first gambling approved on a Native American reservation came in 1979 when the Florida Seminoles opened a high-stakes bingo hall. Its legality was challenged, but the U.S. Supreme Court eventually ruled it was a legal operation.
In 1988, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) was enacted, giving way to the growth of casinos on reservation land.
Much has changed since then. First, online sports gambling became legal in most states in 2018, thanks to a U.S. Supreme Court decision.
That same year, the Supreme Court struck down a 1992 federal law that banned commercial sports betting in most states. This spurred most states to authorize sports wagering, as Colorado did one year later. This gave those states regulatory authority over such gambling outside reservation boundaries.
Of course, one of the most significant changes to occur was in technology.
“[B]ecause of the ability to place an online bet from a cellular phone or other electronic device, bettors can engage in gambling from
almost anywhere,” Judge Gallagher stated in his ruling. “If the gambler and roulette wheel were on Indian land, IGRA applied. However, in 2025, a gambler can be in Denver and the electronic game processed through a computer server on Southern Ute Indian Tribe land or Ute Mountain Ute Tribe land. Where then does the gaming occur?”
“This is a legal determination for the Court to make,” he stated.
In the end, Gallagher determined that any bet placed off-reservation is regulated by the state.
“That distinction is crucial in this action and fatal to the Tribes’ case,” Gallagher wrote. “A myriad of gambling houses offer legal sports betting in the State of Colorado. To engage in this service, they must remit 10% to the State. The State of Colorado has offered this possibility to the Tribes.”
Anger Spills Over
“The Tribe respects Judge Gallagher and appreciates the time he has given this issue,” the Tribes stated in their recent press release. “We believe a different result is mandated by federal law and will be evaluating how to move forward in the coming weeks.”
But after that expression of hope, the Tribes’ sentiments took a very different tone. The press release referred to the “bitter irony” of the situation – a legal setback over gambling funds, most of which are directed at the state’s effort to protect its water resources, while the Southern Ute Tribe deals with a nearly year-old gasoline spill that threatens the Animas River. Groundwater contamination has forced several residents from their properties.
In the months since CBS Colorado first reported the spill, the company whose pipeline is responsible for it has upgraded the extent of it, from 23,000 gallons to nearly 97,000. The spill is now the largest spill of its kind in Colorado since the state began tracking such incidents in 2016.
“We are confident that had this spill been in Denver instead of a remote, rural part of the state, the response would have been more robust,” the two Tribes stated in the press release. “The Southern Ute Indian Tribe has expended its own resources to ensure the local waterways and resources are protected in our region. It has done so without a single dollar of the millions of dollars in revenue the State has collected from sports betting, and without the benefit of additional revenue from tribally-run sports betting that could have been relied upon had the Gaming Compact been honored.”
The Tribes claimed Colorado Gov. Jared Polis failed to participate in a recent conference call with state and Indigenous leaders about the spill.
“Yesterday’s cancelled call between Governor Polis and (Southern Ute) Chairman (Melvin J.) Baker reflects an alarming lack of urgency on the Governor’s part to work cooperatively with the Tribe on this spill – it brings to mind the troubling legacy of how states have historically disregarded Tribal relations, an approach that is wholly unacceptable in today’s society,” they said. “The history of relations between Tribes and the state and federal governments is one of broken Treaties and agreements. The Polis Administration’s conduct is a reminder that those things we think are an artifact of a distant past still exist today.”
A spokesperson from Gov. Polis’s office responded with a statement:
“We deeply respect the government-to-government relationship the state has with the Ute Mountain Ute and Southern Ute Indian Tribes. We are glad that the court ruled in the state’s favor to ensure Colorado can continue to manage sports betting in a way that works best for Coloradans and our state, and continue funding important water projects around the state. We are dedicated to working together with the Tribes on gaming matters, and we look forward to ongoing conversations with the Ute Mountain Ute and Southern Ute Indian Tribes on this important issue.”
Elsewhere
The issue is not Colorado’s alone. Today, Indian gaming, as it is called, is played in 29 states. There are 532 gaming operations, which include casinos, bingo halls, travel plazas and convenience stores. These are owned by 243 Tribes. In total, they grossed almost $44 billion in fiscal year 2024.
However, according to Tribal Government Gaming, three of the 10 states containing the largest number of Tribes still do not have legal sports betting seven years after SCOTUS gave states the right to allow it. A ballot initiative is in the planning stages for 2028 in California.
Congress could enact a national standard for online sports betting through tribal casinos, but has not taken up the issue.
Adjacent to Colorado (from Tribal Government Gaming):
- All of Arizona’s Tribes can offer in-person wagering and digital betting on the reservation. But off reservation, the 10 Tribes licensed to offer online sports betting are regulated by the state and pay the same 10% tax rate as commercial operators.
- Nebraska voters agreed to legalize sports betting on the November 2020 ballot, and three years later, the first bets were taken. The Winnebago Tribe is a key player on the Nebraska gaming scene, but in this case, the Tribe is regulated and taxed by the state.
- Oklahoma Tribes are hoping to pursue legalizing sports betting when the current governor’s term limits are reached in 2027.
- New Mexico’s Tribes have their own regulatory body and are not beholden to the state. They also do not pay taxes.
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