WSP00340

• File Number: 8141
• Description: Fryingpan-Arkansas Project
• State: CO
• Basin: Arkansas
• Water Division: 2
• Date: 8/1/1989
• Author: US DoI BoR
• Title: Final Supplement to the Environmental Statement - Ruedi Reservoir Colorado Round II Water Marketing Program - pg ii - 10.4
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: EIS

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1.7

re~ti~al values on the Fryingpan River (paragraph 10, OP) is made through
a provision of minimum flows below the junction of the Fryingpan River and Rocky
Fork Creek. Also, the lands and surface waters of Ruedi Reservoir are open for
public recreation (paragraph 12, OP).
In order to conduct a second round of water sales, Reclamation has prepared
thi s Fi nal Suppl ement to the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project's Envi ronmental Statement
which was submitted to the Council of Environmental Quality (CEQ) in 1975. A
Draft Supplement was filed with the Environmental Protection Agency, October 6,
1983. Thi s FSES addresses the environmental consequences associ ated with
alternative operations of Ruedi Reservoir to meet competing water demands which
include industrial, municipal development, recre~tion, wildlife, fisheries, and
hydropower. This FSES also includes the effects of the Round I water sales from
Ruedi concluded on May 13, 1982, for 7,850 AF. The reservoir has a firm
marketable yield available for both Round I and Round II sales of 51,500 AF (July
I to June 30) based on a hydrologic analysis covering the years 1948 to 1983.
Requests for Ruedi water, as of August 1983, exceed 80,000 AF (Table 1.1).
The vast majority of requests for Ruedi water was from oil shale interests.
The Pi ceance basi n in western Colorado contains large oil shale reserves.
Development of the oil shale resource has historically occurred in boom and bust
cycles, driven by conditions of the world oil market. While the current world
oil market conditions have slowed the development of oil shale projects, energy
companies continue to maintain and acquire oil shale resources and to pursue the
opmen 0 e ec no ogy.
By the year 2000 to 2010, it is reasonable to assume as a basis for
projecting West Slope water demand that economic conditions might foster the
development of an oil shale industry. A number of studies have been performed
estimating the water needs of the oil shale industry including "An Assessment
of Oil Shale Technologies," Office of Technology Assessment 1980; and "The
Nation's Water Resources 1975-2000, Upper Colorado River Region," U. S. Water
Resources Council. Estimates of oil shale water use vary from 100,000 acre-feet
to 400,000 acre-feet of additional water depletions from the Colorado River
Basin. The water demand could be met through a number of different sources:
marketing of water from Ruedi Reservoir, development of water rights held by the
energy companies, purchase of agricultural rights, groundwater, and reservoirs
such as the proposed Rock Creek/Muddy Creek reservoir project.