WSP09512

• File Number: 8200.765
• Description: White River General
• State: CO
• Basin: Yampa/White
• Water Division: 6
• Date: 11/1/1979
• Author: Clifford H Jex
• Title: Plan for the Water Supply for Development of Oil Shale Industry in White River Basin - Colorado
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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PLAN
FOR THE WA TER SUPPLY
FOR
DEVELOPMENT OF THE OIL SHALE INDUSTRY
IN
WHITE RIVER BASIN, COLORADO

Introduction
In the early 1950's planners envisioned a substantial oil shale development in the
White River Basin located primarily in the Piceance Creek area. The processing of the
oil shale and the treafment of the spent sho/e would require large amounts of water and
by the mid 1950's the planners were filing application for surface rights in the water
courts of the State of Colorado having jurisdiction of this area. As more potential de-
velopers became interested in the area, additional water applications were made and new
applications, as well as amendments to existing applications, are being processed by the
water court at the present time. A total of approximately 20 major projects have been
adjudicated by the woter courts but physicol construction has not been vndertaken on any of
the projects. Many of the projects compete for the same water source and in two instances
storage reservoirs of two projects occupy the same site. In a number of cases two or more
pipelines follow the same route.
With the leasing of the Federal Oil Shale Lease Tracts C-a and C-b in 1974, the
oi I shale industry in the White River Basin became a reality. Further impetous was given
to the development in 1979 when President Carter outlined the aims and goals of the
federal government's Synthetic Fuel Program which included a production goal of 400,000
barrels per day (bpd) of oil shale by 1990. If this goal is to be met, a significant amount
of the production must be produced in the White River Basin.
One important aspect of the potential for utilizing the oi I shale resource of the
White River Basin is the local and regional environmental problems associated with the
large consumptive use of water required for mining and processing this reSource including
the requirement of disposal of the large quantities of solid residual that leave the mine-
plant complex. In the White River Basin, a part of the Colorado River Basin, surface
water and groundwater are in short supplies and there is keen competition between
agricultural, industrial, municipal, power producing, recreational, piscatorial, in-
stream and other users for the allocation of the remaining available water supply. It

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