Officials in multiple states have faced questions over whether clouds of water vapor that form behind airline jets are part of a secret government plot to create a more reflective atmosphere.

Residents of Shasta County in California questioned supervisors about the existence of so-called “chemtrails” on Tuesday, while a local Tennessee regulator’s explanation of the conspiracy theory was published on Monday.

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According to reporter Richard DuPertuis, Shasta County residents complained that “chemtrails” being sprayed by jets were “ripping apart” the ozone layer and harming people’s immune systems. Attendees of the Board of Supervisors meeting claimed nanoparticles in the atmosphere where causing neurological problems and killing off aquatic insects.

One woman said the chemtrails were the cause of the drought in California.

“How better to get people off their land?” she remarked.

Believers in the chemtrails conspiracy are convinced that the clouds of condensation that form behind jets — normally called contrails — are being deliberately created as part of a secret geo-engineering program or a military weather control experiment. They believe the clouds really consist of various metals and chemicals.

Bob Colby, the director of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Air Pollution Control Bureau, said in an interview with David Tulis of Nooganomics.com that the clouds that formed behind jets were natural-occurring phenomenon.

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“Well, I’ve only looked at it briefly,” he explained. “It says that in collaboration with NOAA, NASA, the FAA and EPA, they had determined that persistent contrails are natural phenomenon that occurs at high altitudes from jet engines when the relative humidity levels are high in the upper atmosphere and the water vapor that comes out of the jet engines turns to ice particles, and then those ice particles, and then those ice particles grow larger as they collect moisture in the upper atmosphere that’s there in excessive amounts.”

But Tulis said his research suggested that the clouds are actually formed by sprayed “aluminum nanoparticulates.” The particles are being sprayed to make the atmosphere more reflective and block “the beating rays of the sun,” he claimed.

“When you go from your office door at the end of the day at 5:30 to your car, Bob Colby, do you have any sense that the sun being less strong than it used to be? To me the sun seems really weak,” Tulis added.

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Colby said he hadn’t observed any difference.

Last month, an Arizona regulator answered questions about the conspiracy theory for nearly 2 hours. Republican state Sen. Kelli Ward called for the hearing, where residents complained that chemtrails were causing “very high levels of barium, aluminum and strontium in their blood.”

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“Really, we are being sprayed like we’re bugs and it’s really not okay,” one attendee remarked.

[Contrails from jet on Shutterstock]