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<br />GJD34J <br /> <br />quential, because industrial plants will be required to meet rigorous dis- <br />charge standards, even if the 1985 Federal Water Pollution Control Act non- <br />de9radation standards are somewhat relaxed in the interim. However, mining, <br />like irrigation, carries the potential for non-point source pollution. This <br />can OCcur primarily through the disruption of aquifers, which in many cases <br />are the coal seams themselves, and through leaching from spoil banks, al- <br />though this is a less serious problem in semi-arid areas than in the humid <br />Eastern coal mining regions. <br /> <br />.~. <br /> <br />'::- <br /> <br />Energy Conversion--Energy conversion activities in the Upper <br />Missouri Basin have consisted almost entirely of steam electric power gen- <br />eration and hydroelectric power generation, but production of gas and <br />liquid fuels is anticipated in the future. Water use in the production of <br />hydroelectric power is almost totally nonconsumptive, except for evapora- <br />tion losses from storage reservoirs (which is discussed subsequently). <br />Water use for cooling in steam electric generation is approaching 20% of <br />total withdrawals in the region, but consumptive use is much lower. about <br />1% of total consumption in the region, as shown in Figures 2 and 3. The <br />1980 projections in these figures, which were made before the enactment of <br />the 1972 Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments, greatly overesti- <br />mate the nonconsumptive use of water and also underestimate the consumptive <br />use of water likely to characterize industry, and particularly steam elec- <br />tric power generation, in 1980 as a result of the shift from pass-through <br />cooling to evaporative cooling adopted to meet water pollution standards. <br />Coal gasification and liquefaction are often described as heavy <br />users of water. Although the technology involved is not new and conver- <br />sion facilities have been in operation in Europe for some years, no such <br />plants exist in the United States at this time, so there are no applicable <br />water use records. According to one recent estimate. gasification will re- <br />quire from 72 to 158 gallons per million BTU produced (Arthur D. Little, <br />Inc., 1974),8 which is equivalent to between 2,100 and 4,400 acre feet of <br />water per million tons of coal processed. One source suggests that sixteen <br /> <br />;, ":::::,:?>:~,,j,'~r'i":\;;:/' <br /> <br />.... ... <br /> <br />.-.:. <br /> <br />.... <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />. .," <br />,.>.>::::'.~;':;'y~::;;~:::V./' <br /> <br />17 <br />