When the agency launched the program in November, Mosher said, he expected it to get some scrutiny. Although cloud seeding has been around for decades, many people are unfamiliar with the practice. But shortly after the storms, he said, he and others at the agency have seen a significant increase in emails and calls repeating some of the conspiracy theories being spread on social media.

In recent days, for example, he and others have fielded multiple emails and calls accusing SAWPA of causing the flooding in the wake of the storms. Other calls accuse the agency of causing chemtrails — a conspiracy theory claiming that condensation trials left behind by airplanes are toxic chemicals being sprayed on people for some unspecified nefarious reason.

Chemtrails have been associated with the practice of cloud seeding and seem to have been incorrectly associated with SAWPA's program as well, even though the agency does not use planes and instead seeds clouds from ground units.

Mosher has pointed out to some people that the agency did not cloud-seed during the Feb. 3-8 or Feb. 18-19 storms because meteorologists were predicting significant, even catastrophic, rain.

According to the agency, the last time it seeded clouds near the watershed was Feb. 1. And officials point out that, according to their own estimates, cloud seeding can increase precipitation by only about 5% to 10%.

But the emails and comments have continued, especially after one of the online videos pushing the conspiracy theory encouraged people to reach out directly to Mosher and two other employees at the agency.

The video, which has received thousands of likes on Instagram but was flagged Thursday for spreading false information, starts ominously with images of the damage caused by the storms.

"If the disastrous flooding and record rainfall hitting Southern California right now doesn't seem natural to you, it's probably because it isn't," a woman says, narrating a video of flooding and water rescues.

"We now have information from the government itself that it is performing weather modification, aka, cloud seeding," a man follows up.

The video claims that the Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority "boasts about blasting cancer-linked silver iodide mixed with acetone."

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