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<br />3~1RW'~shn x x x minor <br />Groundwater from a huge aquifer un lying the Piceance Creek Basin could <br /> <br />meet the needs for developing the bvo Colorado tracts under the proto- <br />type program. it said. TOtal water needs for the ~lO tracts, including <br />processing the oil from shale and associated urban needs of the work <br />force at the mines and plants and their families. ranged from 20,200 <br /> <br />acre-feet to 30,700 acre-feet annually. it estimated. <br />Similar estimates for developing the b10 Utah tracts ranged from <br />3,000-5,700 acre-feet of water per year and for developing the two wyo- <br />ming tracts ranged from 2,200-4,800 acre-feet per year. But these would <br />that <br />have to come from surface sources, it said. It assumed III ,-rater would <br />be piped from the vnlite River to the utah tracts, and that ,vater forthe <br />Wyoming tracts '1Ould come from either Flaming Gorge or Fontenelle reser- <br />veim on the Green River. <br /> <br />(bpd) <br />It estimated a million barrel-per-day/shale oil industry would con- <br />sume from 121,000-189,000 acre-feet of ",ater annually. This ''laS listed <br />as the "most likely" range of water use for a mature shale oil industry <br />turning out a million bpd. ,Possible '-later savings ranging from 10,000- <br />40,000 acre-feet of \vater annually might be credited against this use, <br />it said. <br />The prototype lease program would ~ave little effect on Colorado <br />River salinity. it said. But a mature million bpd industry \"lould in- <br />crease salinity in the Colorado River at Hoover dam by 1.5 percent, it <br />predicted. The salinity build-up would not occur for some years, accor- <br />ding to the EIS. Initially, when the oil shale mines in Colorado and <br />Utah are being de",atered and when the Piceance Creek aquifer is being <br />tapped, the water is expected to be high quality. But over time the wa- <br />ter pumped out of the, ~mines and used in the shale oil operations will <br />the oil ,..ale EIS said, <br />increase in salinity,lso that "discharge to local streams ''lill no longer <br />be possible without treatment." It said a desalting plant using the dis- <br />tillation process could recover water up to 98 percent which '.ould have <br />only 10 parts of salt per million parts of water (p?ffi). It could be <br />other <br />blended with/III Colorado River water to "obtain a product suitable for <br /> <br />release to surface streams,u tho EIS said, and the ,vaste brine from the <br />. (more-hem) <br /> <br />0189 <br />