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DEPLETION OF SURFACE WATER SUPPLJES 19 may ge brought under irrigation will depend upon the degree to which new projects will be subsidized. o Should such subsidies be limited to $200 per acre of new land or its ':'"') equivalent, then the resulting depletion of the stream flow would be W no mOre than 100,000 acre-feet per year. Should subsidies of $400 ...... per acre of new land or its equivalent be given, the resulting stream ..... depletion would be a little more than 400,000 acre-feet per year. o Should: subsidies as great as $600 per acre be permitted, the resulting stream depletion at sites of use might reach 800,000 acre-feet per year. If there should be no limit upon subsidies to irrigation, then the entire surplus available to Colorado could be consumed by irrigation of new lands. Thesf3 limiting depletions include no allowance for conflicts between land uses for agriculture and industry. . At least three of the potential irrigatibn projects along Colorado River in the vicinity of Rifle cannot be built if there is to be any commercial development of the oil-shale reserves. POTENTIAL INDUSTRIAL USE Many; years have elapsed since people began to talk about estab- lishment of major industries on the western slope of Colorado and many more years may elapse before this becomes a reality, but the time: could be relatively short. Such developments depend upon and must await utilization of the tremendous oil shale deposits along Colorado River. Whenever it becomes commercially feasible to mine and process these deposits for oil, great quantities of gas will become 4vailable as fuel for generation of power, and there will be many other byproducts usable in chemical industries. OIL SHALE DEVELOPMENT The richest and most extensive oil shale deposits in the United States are in Colorado between White River and Colorado River northwest, of Rifle. They are in almost horizontal strata near the top of the higl\l. plateau and are exposed along the face of the Roan Cliffs. . It is es~imated by the United States Bureau of Mines that these oil shale d;eposits cover an area of approximately 2,500 square miles and that an average yield of 15 gallons of shale oil per ton of shale could be obtained from beds aggregating 500 feet in thickness. About 1,000 square miles of the total area has already been explored by core drilling and other tests. The Bureau of Mines estimates that approxi- mately 100 million barrels of shale oil could be produced from each square mile' of the Mahogany Ledge, a section less than 100 feet thick, which assais about 30 gallons of shale oil per ton of shale. There can be no doubt that the reserves are more than sufficient to support mining operations at the maximum conceivable mte for several hun- dreds of years. . Processing of oil shale Processing of such shale oils is not something which is untried; on the contrary, it is being done commercially in other countries. In Colorado the Bureau of Mines has been carrying on extensive tests and has built and operated pilot plants near Rifle to determine the process most' suitable for the development of this resource. ,. ~' .' ,". '<' ,; . s~ . 'Ti ......