Dec. 9, 2008 — There’s nothing unusual in the skies over Lassen County, according to a reader who responded to last week’s front-page story in the Lassen County Times over another resident’s concerns about chemtrails. And a Southern California meteorologist who runs a Web site that actually predicts chemtrail activity across the country said those concerned about chemtrails should look to the airline industry instead of the government.

Dr. Owen Bateson, a Susanville chiropractor, pilot and veteran certified flight instructor, said the lines that linger in the sky and turn into milky white clouds are nothing more than water vapor and exhaust from jet engines.

“It’s completely dependent upon the temperature and the dew point,” Bateson said. “When the temperature and the dew point are within 4 degrees of each other, water in the air will produce fog. When the temperature and the dew point are close to each other, the contrails will last for hours and hours and turn into clouds. In the last few weeks we’ve had very good conditions in the atmosphere for producing contrails. When you see a jet and no contrail, it’s because the temperature and the dew point are nowhere near each other.”

Bateson said familiarity with such information is vital for pilots who need to know about weather conditions that can create clouds.

Lassen County also lies directly underneath a north and south jet route that runs from Southern California to Portland, Bateson said. In addition to traffic from the airport in Reno, Bateson said we’re also near the Whitmore Military Operations Area, a military jet route that includes high-altitude jet refueling procedures.

In August, Shasta County residents told the Shasta County air board they discovered metals in soil and snow samples they attributed to chemtrails.

Bateson said the metals may have been deposited as part of a cloud seeding program.

For example, Pacific Gas and Electric uses ground-based silver-nitrate generators in the Lake Almanor basin to increase rainfall and the result of those efforts could be “more metal in the snow than there should be,” Bateson said.

A meteorologist’s opinion
Southern California meteorologist Kevin Martin, the operator of two Web sites — owsweather.com and chemtrailalert.com — said many people are confused about chemtrails and the danger they pose to people on the ground.

“I'm always there to give you the truth,” Martin said. “You are being poisoned, and the chemtrails are real. However, the way you think is not accurate. Planes are the cause. All planes. They’re the invisible killers.”

According to Martin, exhaust from the planes goes into the atmosphere every time a plane flies. He said the chemtrails form when the atmospheric conditions are right, but every plane flying still spews exhaust. We only see the exhaust as chemtrails when the conditions in the atmosphere are right.

Martin even predicts the days when chemtrails will be visible on his Web sites.

“The fact is, airline exhaust is the chemtrail,” Martin said. “Chemicals in these gases can harm human, plant and animal life … I have been predicting contrail developments from actual meteorological data to support it. Do not be upset that the government is not the one behind all the lines in the skies … I will continue chemtrail alerts because the exhaust is like a flu. It can be predicted before storms and rain events. It does harm people. Take the predictions as you wish, but know what they are.”

Martin said people have reported a number of health issues after storms including burning eyes, trouble breathing, and coughing.

“Precipitation is the leading cause of cleaning our air out,” Martin said. “What if the toxins inside plane exhaust precipitates? Rain and snow can absorb these chemicals and bring them to the surface over a large area. What if our very own transportation service in the sky is poisoning the surface as an acid rain effect?

“If you have been following my chemtrail maps, you will notice they are accurate. Why? Because these maps are actual forecasts of contrail formation, when contrails will be visible, when contrails can sustain visibility … Please understand the danger of chemtrails is not the government … ”