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<br />4-WRH washn x x x from the <br />desalter could be used to help compact the spent shale, it said. Other <br /> <br />options mentioned in the EIS included solar evaporation of the saline <br /> <br />water and reinjection into the nquifers of the Upper Basin. <br /> <br />"Recycling of the excess mine \,raters "after de\~atering the mines, <br /> <br />presumably by reinjecting the \-rater back into the ground. "may delay for <br /> <br />many years the need for diverting and consuming large amounts of sur- <br /> <br />face Wctt: ers- for oil chale development," the EIS stated. This is parti- <br /> <br />cularly likely in Colorado, where the Piceance Creek aquifer may have <br /> <br />as much as 25 million acre-feet of \~ater, it pointed out. <br />final <br />The/EIS on oil shale answered a number of questions raised by many <br /> <br />who commented on the 1972 draf~ EIS.It indicated there would be some de- <br /> <br />cline in air quality in oil shale country, particularly in the Piceance <br /> <br />Creek Basin area of Hestern Colorado. It indicated the disposal of <br /> <br />spent shale in nearby canyons and revegetating it with forage for ani- <br /> <br />mals in the area would be major probler.~. <br /> <br />Despite opposition expressed to the draft report's outline of the <br /> <br />considerable authority of the U.S. Geological Survey.luning SUpervisors, <br /> <br />the final EIS did not change this detail. It did state~ however, that <br /> <br />a new Oil Shale ~clUlical Advisory Board \1i1l be appointed ~n1en the <br /> <br />test lease program gets underway to advise the USGS Mining Supervisors <br /> <br />and district managers of the Bureau of Land Management. No detailed <br />and processing <br />mining/plan will be put into effect regardiLg any of the leased tracts <br /> <br />until a public hearing has been held in the affected county. The hear- <br /> <br />ing will be conducted by the USGS Mining Supervisor with th( aid of the <br /> <br />Board. The Board will be the successor agency to the Oil Shale Taslt <br /> <br />Force, which will go out of existence once the prototype program gets <br /> <br />unden~ay. The Board will be headquartered in Denver, and it is under- <br /> <br />stood here that it viII be headed by Henry Ash of BLM, who is currently <br /> <br />deputy coordinator of the Oil Shale Task :rorce vith offices in Denver. <br />(See 1iRW, Series IX, No. 34, 8-23-73) HCM <br />(Ed. Note: The states in the Colorado River Upper Basin do not neces~ <br />sarily agree with the water use figures in the final ~il shale EIS. The <br />EIS also lists as future uses projects ~n1ich may never be funded or ful- <br />ly developed. As other Upper Basin consumptive uses probably would re- <br />place the shelved projects, the final estimates of water availability <br />for oil shale development in the EIS appear to be reasonably accuratel) <br />(more-hem <br />"'88 <br /> <br />.1 <br /> <br />I <br />i <br />II <br />i <br />II <br />I <br />! <br /> <br />II <br />II <br />I ~ <br />I <br />,I <br />II <br />. <br />, <br />