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<br />I <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />mix that with the available existing rights that might be or have <br />been purchased, it seems to us that we would have far more than <br />enough water to satisfy any foreseeable industry in the Grand Valley <br />area. It is a mystery to us as to where all these dire predictions <br />originate. <br /> <br />On the other hand, we obviously do have a problem in the Piceance <br />Basin, but we won t get into thaL now. Right now we are concen- <br />trating on the imreediate and foreseeable plans in the Grand Valley <br />area. <br /> <br />Mr. Stahleton: I envision this meeting today to be for the purpose <br />of reac ing some understanding as to whether we have enough water <br />available to take care of oil shale development whenever it comes. <br />I don't think it's going to happen immediately. The availability of <br />water itself is one problem. We are also concerned about return <br />flows, water quality standards and the salinity problem. I take it <br />on the salinity you say it will only add salinity because there is <br />not that water being used to dilute the present stream and therefore <br />there is a slight increase. Is that correct? <br /> <br />Mr. Kilburn: Yes, that is correct. The purpose is to construct the <br />salt discharge facility. It is not possible to build a dam to <br />contain all floods. There will be the unusual precipitation events <br />that would flood our catchment dam. Maybe every ten years, twenty- <br />five years, something like that. At that time, we envision the <br />water would be quite diluted. In other words, if there were saline <br />water in the catchment dam there would be a certain amount that would <br />be highly diluted. No discharge of any polluted material into the <br />watershed would be our goal and that can be achieved. The saline <br />increase would have to come from the lack of dilution water. That <br />is a very, very difficult point for me to understand because how far <br />do~~ do we get accused of increasing the salinity. <br /> <br />Dr. Skogerboe, one of our consultants, has indicated there are several <br />ways to reduce salinity in the r.iver. <br /> <br />Mr. Vandemoer: Is there any water that is used just for a cooling <br />process? Or does it just go back to the river with a heat factor? <br />In other words, in your process do you retllrn hot water to the river <br />at all? <br /> <br />Mr. Kilburn: No, we do not. We consume it completely. About 30 <br />percent by our latest figuring, would be used for wetting the processed <br />shale and for revegetation. The rest of the water is used in the <br />process and goes off as water vapor. <br /> <br />Mr. Sparks: I might add that it is this point that caused our <br />estimates to go up considerably. When this board in 1959 made the <br />first study of the water resources which might be required for the <br />oil shale industry, we had computed a considerable return flow from <br />all the oil shale uses. As a result of the growing salinity problem <br /> <br />-10- <br />