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<br />N <br />W <br />o <br />en <br /> <br />1 <br /> <br />EXECUTIVE SUMMARY <br />OF MAJOR <br />FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS <br /> <br />The primary purpose of this study is to assess the availability of <br />water for oil shale and coal gasification developments in the Upper <br />Colorado River Basin. The study is not specifically concerned with other <br />energy conversion processes and their development, although the avail- <br />ability of water for the two specified emerging energy technologies (EETs) <br />has been assessed against a background of conventional energy developments. <br /> <br />The study's secondary purposes are twofold: <br /> <br />1. To assess the impacts that would be associated with the <br />development of water supplies for EETs, and <br /> <br />2. To estimate the cost of disposing of the wastewaters that <br />would be generated by these EETs. <br /> <br />Outputs from the industry would be in the form of both high-Btu gas <br />and crude shale oil. Outputs are expressed in this assessment in terms <br />of barrels of oil equivalents. For example, a 1.5 million barrels per <br />day (bbl/day) EET industry is taken to be one that produces about 8.7 <br />trillion Btu/day, whether in the form of high-Btu gas from gasification <br />plants or crude shale oil from oil shale retorting facilities (by-product <br />off-gases from oil shale retorting are not included here as an output). <br /> <br />Availability of Surface Water for Emerging Energy Technology Developments <br /> <br />It is estimated that the water demands of an EET industry of about <br />1.5 million bbl/day,l as well as the water demands of the associated <br />growth,2 could be satisfied from surfa~e supplies without having co <br />significantly reduce (if at all) other projected consumptive uses in <br />the Upper Basin. This conclusion is premised on four major qualifiers. <br /> <br />1. The mix of EET developments that was actually analyzed was an oil shale <br />industry of 1.3 million bbl/day, i.e., 26 unit-sized plants; and a high- <br />Btu gasification industry of about 2 billion standard cubic feet per day <br />(scf/day), i.e., 8 unit-sized plants. Referred to as the baseline case <br />EET projection, this assumed EET industry would produce about 9.5 trillion <br />Btu/day. <br /> <br />2. Associated growth refers to the municipal and industrial (e.g., steam <br />electric power generation) growth that EET developments would spawn. <br /> <br />1-1 <br />