WSP03239

• File Number: 8040.100
• Description: Section D General Studies - Power
• State: CO
• Basin: Statewide
• Date: 10/8/1979
• Author: Colorado DNR
• Title: Preliminary Projections of Colorado Energy Resource Development and Associated Impacts
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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Minin!!; Impact

The Division of Mines has identified the high scenario as impossible
to achieve, primarily because of the infant nature of oil shale technology,
especially in regard to underground in situ mining. They identify as one.
potential problem the production of gases which, if not contained, could
be hazardous to the personnel working underground. Also, there would be
dangers of retorts collapsing, fire spreading throughout the mines, and
future subsidence because of the voids left by the retort rooms and
necessary tunnels, raises and shafts to conduct the mining. Further,
once mining is completed, there would be a substantial resource wastage
of all the shale ore that had been left for support of the working areas.
From the Division's perspective, it would appear that open-pit and sur-
face retorting would be the safest, most feasible way of mining oil shale
at this time and through 1990. The second best and safest way would be
to mine by block caving, with surface retorting of the extracted ore.
However, they feel that oil recovery methods may never be fruitful in
replacing raw oil and that the costs appear so high that the end results
would not be worth the effort. Evidence from the Division indicates
that underground in situ retorting would recover only about 20% of the
energy contained in the oil shale resource.

Oil and Gas Conservation Impact

The Oil and Gas Conservation Commission has identified a number of
resources which would be required in order to support the high scenario
of production in oil and gas. There would have to be an availability
of drilling rigs and drill pipe casings in order to maintain continuous
drilling effort. Further, there would have to be an extensive atray of
service companies in the northwest portion of the state to service this
additional drilling. Pipelines capabilities would have to be increased
to handle the additional volumes of gas, while heavy equipment would be
needed for construction. It might also require substantial increases in
manpower needs to run the drilling rigs and heavy equipment. One poten-
tial problem is the rough terrain which exists in some parts of northwest
Colorado, making it extremely difficult to construct lease roads and
pipelines. Overall, the development of oil and gas is more gradual than
the other energy resources and therefore the impacts and problems are
lessened.

Geolo!!;ical Survey Impact

The Colorado Geological Survey has identified a number of impacts
directly related to energy development which are primarily the respon-
sibility of industry to control and mitigate, with oversight functions
by various divisions within the Department of Natural Resources. These
direct development problems include subsidence in the case of underground
in situ mining, unstable slopes with open-pit mining, tailings disposal
problems for all mining, surface draining problems, and subsurface water
disruption and mixing. There also are a series of indirect problems
related to development whic~ normally become the responsibility of local
governments..- . These revolve around land-use prohlems in relat:Lon to
development of housing sites, roads, waste water supply, etc. Typical
of the problems are soil-subsidence, unstable slopes, debris flows, and
ground water interruption.