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. , " " ,." ~(j c~~ ,..., (,' c AQUATRAIN PROJECT BY MICHAEL J. CLINTON PROJECT MANAGER SALINE WATER TRANSPORT AND USE OFFICE BUREAU OF RECLAMATION DENVER, COLORADO AQUATRAIN is a pipeline transport project for Colorado River saline water and Rocky Mountain coal, The AQUATRAIN Project is a cooperative effort between government and private industry that would provide least-cost salinity control and economically competitive coal transportation. Reclamation's primary purpose for being involved in AQUATRAIN is to control the salt-laden waters entering the Colorado River by transporting these waters to the nearest points of beneficial use or by disposing of them in a cost-effective manner, thus limiting additional damage caused by saline water--currently estimated at $120 million per year. Without further salinity control, damages attributable to the saline water are projected at nearly $240 million (constant 1984 dollars) annually by the year 2010. Neither of these estimates includes saline water damages to the environment and public health, nor damage in Mexico. AQUATRAIN would help protect the quality of Colorado River water delivered to Mexico, as stipulated in Minute No. 242 to the U.S.-Mexico Water Treaty of 1944. AQUATRAIN will also help maintain water quality standards established by the Colorado River Basin States and the Environmental Protection Agency. The Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Forum supports AQUATRAIN's salinity control function and is assisting by addressing matters of state jurisdiction. The goal of private industry in AQUATRAIN is to achieve an economically competitive method of transporting coal or a high-quality coal product from mines in Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah to domestic markets in the Southwest and to export markets on the Pacific Coast. Currently, escalating rail freight rates are discouraging growth and development of these vast western coal resources. To meet the project's critical objective of competitive product transport in the pipeline system, liquid carbon dioxide (C02) is now proposed as a transport medium. The naturally occurring chemlcal compound has a greater carrying capacity than water in a conventional slurry pipeline, allowing more sources and markets to be serviced. Liquid CO? transport will also protect the quality of coal (or the product made frOm the coal) during transport. The potential liquid CO? transport of other commodities such as soda ash, grain, and clay products is proposed to make optimal use of the system, but laboratory and pilot plant testing will be needed. Through a Cooperative Agreement, the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Reclamation and Aquatrain, Inc. (owned by Western Water Reserves, Inc.) are jointly investigating the project's concept. Western Water Reserves, Inc., has a technology to produce a clean, high grade coal product which would reduce smokestack emissions and aid air quality. The product can be used directly in existing boilers for oil and gas replacement both