WSP00132

• File Number: 8271.300
• Description: Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Program - General Information and Publications-Reports
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 6/1/1980
• Title: Use of Saline Water in Energy Development
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

t.IJ
~
l\)
~

RESEARCH ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Data Collection and Evaluation

Introduction

The Upper Colorado River Bas~n is v:ry
sparsely populated, and much of It is VIr-
tually wasteland. Rai~fall is. gener,ally
light, and irrigated agr~culture :8 limIted.
Hydrologic datB are lackIng, partIcularly as
they pertain to underground water. For many
years drilling has been done for oil and gas,
and much of the available geologic and
hydrologic data have been gleaned ~ro~ th~se
efforts. More recently the natIon s 1~-
creasing interest in energy has resulted In
numerous studies being made of energy re-
source reserves and water supplies to develop
them. These have increased significantly the
amount of information available, particularly
in specific areas. For example, the environ-
mental impact statement prepared for the
Intermountain pwer Project (IpP) (1976)
site near Cainesville, Utah, contains a
wealth of information on underground and
surface water supplies, and other natural
resources of the area. If comparable data
were available for the rest of the basin
(which are not), planning to meet the water
needs for development of the energy reserves
would be greatly eohanced,

Numerous agencies, industries, and
individuals have contributed to the informa-
tion presented herein. New data are becoming
available continuously, and projections
change in accordance wi th them. I nformat ion
presented in this report and conclusions
drawn from it were as good as could be done
a t the time. However, plans and procedures
for the basin should be updated regularly as
more details are obtained.

Energy Reserves

Oil and gas production has been going on
in the basin for many years. Hundreds of
wells have been drilled and many of them are
still producing. Figure 3 show.s locations
~nd relative sizes of known deposlts of these
important commodities. Figure 4 shows the
locations of coal in the basin, and empha-
sizes the fact that most of the reserves are
not accessible at present coal prices,
because of being either too deep or in beds
that are too thin. A small percentage of
coal in the basin is strip-mined, and the
remainder is mined underground.

In addition to coal, oil, and gas
deposits, the basin contains considerable
uranlum. There are also large deposits of
oil shale and tar sands of economic signifi-

cance (Figure 5). A map of the basin was
constructed showing locations and sizes of
these known reserves of energy resources, and
their proximities to underground water
supplies. To present more detail, the map
was divided into six segments, shown in
Figures 6 through 11. More information
concerning water quality and quantity
is presented in the following sections.

Water Supply
Sur face water

Most of the surface water in the basin
is of fairly good quality and has already
been appropriated for municipal, industrial,
and agricultural uses. When new industries
enter, the needed water is generally pur-
chased from agriculture and converted to a
different use. Some shallow aquifers also
contain good water, but all of these supplies
together cannot meet the anticipated needs of
the basin. There are also limited surface
supplies of low quality water.

Irri~ation return flow. One important
source of rack ish water is irrigation return
flows. In many of the smaller tributaries of
the Green and Colorado Rivers, almost all
flow is diverted for irrigation use near
the upper ends of valleys during most of the
year. The flows in the lower reaches are
therefore principally irrigation return flows
as both point (ends of canals) and nonpoint
sources drain into the river. Such flows
usually have high TOS (total dissolved
solids) due mainly to salt concentration and
salt pickup during subsurface percolation
through shale type format ions. A typical
example is the San Rafael River Basin (whicQ
is in close proximi ty to major coal depos-
its). The upper reaches of the tributaries
to this river at the irrigation points of
diversion have excellent water quality with
TOS levels of 150 to 300 mg/l. However,
reaches of these tributaries below the
irrigated areas are of a much lesser quality
as summarized in Table 2.

The annual flow of the Colorado River at
Lees Ferry averages about 9,619,000 ac-ft at
647 mg/l TOS. The San Rafael River annual
flow averages 66,000 ac-ft at 2,261 mg/l TOS.
The San Rafael obviously adds to the salinity
problem in the Lower Colorado (an 11 mg!l
increase) and any consumptive use of this
brackish water by fossil fuel developments
(without return flow of salt) would have a
beneficial impact upon the river as well as
providing water for energy production.

5

.