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<br />0:) <br />) <br />lJ~ <br />~ <br />C.;; <br />C As you know, when AQUATRAI N was fi rst proposed, sa 1 i ne water was to be <br />the medium for transporting coal. The connection then was obvious. <br />However, that concept was changed in 1983, lItlen we learned that a new <br />technology -- liquid carbon dioxide transport -- was not only more effi- <br />cient, but also would eliminate many problems involved with water-based <br />slurries. Those problems (opposition to interstate and interbasin water <br />transfer, legal issues associated with such transfer, and environmental <br />impacts) have effectively stalled or curtailed construction of many <br />slurry pipelines proposed recently. Now, with liquid carbon dioxide <br />replacing saline water, the connection is less obvious. What role will <br />saline water play? What is the connection between the projects? Why <br />should the Federal Government be involved with a coal slurry pipeline? <br />What interest does the private sector have in saline water? <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />First let me state that AQUATRAIN has been divided into two separate <br />projects which Reclamation and Aquatrain, Inc., are working on jointly. <br />One effort is to determi ne and develop vari ous sa 1 i ne water proj ects in <br />the Basin to use the water beneficially. The second project is a <br />1,180-mile-long liquid carbon dioxide/coal slurry pipel ine called <br />WESTRANS (Western Resource Transport) which will carry up to 15 million <br />tons of coal per year from Gillette, Wyoming, to Long Beach, California, <br />for export to Pacific Rim countries. <br /> <br />A most basic question concerns private industry's interest in saline <br />water as it is no longer needed as a transport medium. Real istically, <br />the objective of any private enterprise is to realize a return on <br />investment. This requires successful planning, construction, and opera- <br />tion of a project, in this case, the coal slurry pipeline. As I mentioned <br />earl i er, many sl urry 1 i nes have been defeated even before they were <br />built due to such problems as controversy over use of water. Other <br />problems include acquiring rights-of-way and obtaining approval through <br />the NEPA process for environmental impact statements -- all areas where <br />Reclamation can help reduce the risk. The goal of Aquatrain, Inc., in <br />attaching a salinity control function to the coal transport project is <br />to entice government participation in the slurry pipeline and enhance <br />possibilities for its success through this participation. A multipur- <br />pose project which includes salinity control can provide Aquatrain, <br />Inc., with a higher expectation that the project will be built, and thus <br />a return on investment can be anticipated. <br /> <br />Also, some possibility exists that saline water projects may be deve- <br />loped as economic ventures. That is, sal i ne water use in industry may <br />generate income which could be returned in part to Aquatrain, Inc., for <br />money the firm has invested in salinity control. <br /> <br />As an added benefit to not only Reclamation, but also to other locales <br />around the world where salinity is a costly problem, Aquatrain, Inc., <br />will establish a "brain trust" to seek out innovative, cost-effective <br />desalination alternatives. Such options would be most valuable in <br />helping the U.S. meet its obligations to Mexico, as established in an <br />international treaty and subsequent agreements. <br /> <br />2 <br />