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I'lO '*,-'"'-4 ~\l 'r',.J '- c: , c .e.S p~~~~ planned . ~ Coal pipeline study By AL GORDON I Q _Iy-fv Newl WasbiDgtoD BllI'eau WASHINGTON -, Interior Department officials announced Wednesday they plan to spend more than $500,000 a year "to get out of the way" of a proposed coal pipeline in Western Colorado, As the soundtrack of a slide presentation twanged away with country music, representatives of the Bureau of Recla- mation and W.R. Grace & Co. said at a press conference they've agreed to cooperate on the $2 billion to $3 billion project. The plan calls for packaging pulverized coal from Grace's Craig mining operations into plastic containers and, using saline water from G1enwood Springs, floating the bags through a pipeline to an as-yet undetermined West Coast port or power plant. Studies are supposed to be finished by 1985 and construction completed by 1987. However, reclamation Commissioner Robert Broadbent said the letter of understanding between the two sides' hadn't been signed nor had Congress approved the legislation needed for the bureau to participate in the venture. AND CHARLES MARGOLF of Grace said the company hadn't perfected the technology, found customers or obtained financing for the venture. What has been agreed to is that the Interior Department will participate in feasibility studies for the project, prepare an environmental impact statement for it, help select its route and approve rights of way across federal lands, Broad- bent estimated the bureau's study costs would be $500,000 to $600,000 a year "for the next several vears:' In addition the , , , 'H <.. _ -Bad- -~ 1.,51 .., It ..Pr. IJ" /1l'1," ~ W. R. Grace Floats Plan For 'Coal River'in West Bya WALL STREET JOURNAL Staf!Reporter WASHINGTON - The Interior De, partment'said it will help WR Grace & Co. develop plans to transport Colorado coal to the West Coast in plastic bags. The department said it will conduct an environmental'impact study and help find a route for the company's proposed "aquatrain" . pipeline. The pipeline. which would be 1,200 miles long, would use salt water to transport the bagged coaL Grace contends that thIs method would harm the environment less than transporting coal slurry. a process that produces polluted water. Grace plans to use salt'poIluted wa' ter from the upper Colorado River ba. sin. which would require approval of states affected, a department spokes- man said, The proposed pipeline would cost about $2.5 billion and be privately f1nanced, The study will cost the gov' emmen! $1.8 million, the spokesman said. environmental impact statement will cost $5 million, he said, although Grace is expected to pay part of that.' Then, if it proves feasihle, the federal government may divert funds used for projects to control'salinity.in the C?lora- , do River to purchase a 5 percent to 10 percent mterest m thel venture, "We'd like to get out of the wall of private industry" so they can, go ahead with the project, Broadbent said, Federal officials said Colorado and other Colorado River basin states would settle the complex issues of water law raised by the project. THE PIPELINE IS supposed to ease the river's salinity problems because the salty water from the G1enwood Springs area would be replaced by fresh water from the Yampa River through rights owned by Grace. Unlike a coal-slurry pipeline in which the coal is mixed with water and must be processed at the terminal, the Grace method is supposed to permit the delivery of coal in ready-to- use form. Bob Burford, director of the Bureau of Land Management and a western Colorado rancher, called it "one of the most exciting concepts" for transporting coal in many years. He said it might help revive the area's ailing coal industry, including Grace's cutback-plagued Colo-Wyo mine near Craig that would be the source of the pipeline's coal. Margolf said if the pipeline could cut $10 a ton off the $28 a ton it costs to ship coal from Craig to Long Beach, Calif., Grace could open up major export markets to Japan and other Asian nations and also might be able to supply electric utilities in the West and Soilthwest. '/," '