Laserfiche WebLink
<br />. <br /> <br />-10- <br /> <br />15. This item of your analysis charges 300,000 acre-feet a year <br />for "oil shale and related industry". The oil shale deposits in Yiestern <br />Colorado constitute an important natural resource of the State. As a matter <br />of fact, it appears that these reserves are the major potentiality for the <br />production of synthetic fuel oil from shale in the entire country. Any <br />Colorado water program should take into account water requirements for this <br />purpose. <br /> <br />In your comments you state: <br /> <br />Il}jir. Boyd Guthrie in charge of the United States shale <br />experimental plant in January 1949 at Grand Junction, Colorado, <br />to the Colorado River Steering Committee, gave it as his opinion <br />that the consumptive use of water for processing shale at the <br />rate of one million barrels per ~, and for the incident <br />municipal use would be 268,000 acre-feet of water per year.1t <br />(emphasis supplied) <br /> <br />You further state: <br /> <br />"lir. Guthrie made no effort to estimate the required <br />consumption of water by incidental activities which would <br />normally accompany such a development and the figure of <br />32,000 acre-feet has been added to his estimated minimum <br />peace-time operation to cover that factor, making an even <br />300,000 acre-feet estimate." <br /> <br />You do not define the "incidental activities". The Guthrie figures <br />include the "incidental municipal use". Accordingly, it ?rould seem that the <br />correct figure to use as the charge for this purpose is 268,000 rather than <br />300,000 acre-feet a yea.r, if the Guthrie estimates are used. <br /> <br />Recent revised values for annual water consumptive use reql irements <br />for a 1,000,000 barrel per day plant for processing shale oils by two different <br />processes show: <br /> <br />Union Oil Company Process Gas Flow Complete Process <br /> . <br />Processing 131,000 A. F. 103,000 A.F. <br />Ibmestic 15,500 A. F. 15,500 A.F. <br /> 146,500 A. F. 118,500 A. F. <br /> <br />The amount of water contained in the above table for domestic pur- <br />poses is the consumptive use required for 283,000 persons at 200 gallons a <br />day per person. It is estimated that the diversion required for this purpose <br />would be approximately 75,000 acre-feet a year., According to present estimates <br />