WSP10311

• File Number: 8200.765
• Description: White River General
• State: CO
• Basin: Yampa/White
• Water Division: 6
• Date: 11/1/1980
• Author: Utah Div of Water Re
• Title: White River Dam Project - Proposed Action Plan
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

price of shale oil required to yield a 15% return on investment exceeded
$20 per barrel in 1975 dollars.

The WRSP is recommending that demonstration modules be constructed to

insure a wide range of technologies for shale processing. The cost for a

module is estimated in the $100-200 million range and would be unprofitable

as a private venture. It is felt by WRSP that the most realistic approach

would be joint government-industry funding through the technology development

phase. The WRSP is also faced with questions as to the validity of their

federal leases. The existence of unpatented mining claims and an overfiling

for a state lease on tracts Ua and Ub have prompted a court injunction suspending

the terms and obligations of the leases until these "clouds" on the title are

resolved.

As the price of gasoline at the pump escalates, if Congress approves the

presidential proposal to decontrol oil prices in the United States, if the OPEC

nations continue escalating the cost of their export oil, and when the title

questions are resolved, a climate may be, created for continued oil shale

development on Tracts Ua and Ub in the not too distant future.

VI. TOSCO SAND WASH OIL SHALE PROJECT4

Tosco Corporation is in the early, phase of evaluating development of oil

shale resources on the Sand Wash Unit, consisting of 14,000 plus acres of lands

leased from the State of Utah and located south of the proposed Indian irrigation

project. Tosco Corporation has indicated water diversion facilities from the

White River for development of its project would be located in the general vicinity

of the proposed diversion for the Ute Indian irrigation project. Such diversion

would require releasing water from the White River Dam which would flow downstream

to the point of diversion and would then be conveyed in a pipeline to the project

location south of the White River. A single diversion facility to meet the needs

of both the irrigation project and the Sand Wash Unit could possibly be constructed.

By the letter of May 4, 1979, (copy attached), Tosco Corporation estimates its

future water needs for a commercial oil shale facility at 18,000 acre-feet annually.

VII. UTE INDIAN IRRIGATION DIVERSION

The Ute Indian Tribe of Fort Duchesne plans to irrigate an estimated 12,845

acres of Group 6 and 7 lands from White River. These lands are located on the

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