4000

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 4000
• Author: U.S. Department of the Interior.
• Title: Report on Water For Energy in the Upper Colorado River Basin.
• USFW Year: 1974.
• USFW - Doc Type: \
• Copyright Material: NO

in the aquifer for natural recharge that occurs principally during
periods of snowmelt. Pumping in excess of the annually replenishable
supply (mining) is a feasible alternative whereby a critical water
supply can be obtained over a specified period of time with con-
sequential effect on the environment and the surface water component
of the hydrologic system. Large-scale dewatering operations
for open-pit and subsurface mines would, in effect, be considered
local mining of ground water if the amount pumped exceeds the annual
recharge rate. In the Piceance Creek Basin, the lessees of Colorado
prototype oil shale lease tracts C-a and C-b have estimated the water
demand for processing and disposal of oil shale to be 11,500 and
10,000 acre-feet per year, respectively. Both lessees propose to
supply this demand entirely by ground water obtained from the mine
dewatering operations.

Water quality considerations are significant in utilization of
water developed by mine dewatering. The range of water quality
that can be anticipated is reflected in Table 10, Depending on
the process for which the water is to be used, some desalination
process or blending of saline ground water with better quality
surface water should be considered.

To summarize, a tremendous quantity of ground water is stored in
aquifers throughout the Upper Colorado River Basin--many times the
amount that can be stored in existing and planned surface reservoirs.
A significant percentage of this quantity can be pumped for energy
related purposes on a time-limited basis, provided that tradeoffs
with regard to depleted streamflow, water quality factors, and other
environmental effects are acceptable to the user and to the public.
Specific quantities that are in storage or that can be feasibly
developed cannot be determined from presently available information.
Detailed studies, such as those currently under way in the Piceance
Creek Basin are prerequisite to realistic determination of these
quantities, the stresses of various ground water development patterns,
and the impacts of the development.

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