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<br />oil-shale industry) may well be minor in comparison to <br />other contributions, but we have no margin of safety." <br />In Mexico, where farmers do not have the techniques <br />necessary 10 deal with salinitv, the waler is considered <br />unusable. <br />Eventually the oil-shale industr~, like all water users <br />who increase s.'1linity, will have to face the problem of <br />compensating lor these increa~es. Oil-shale industry <br />experts already h,]ve several ..olutions in mind, for <br />example: limiting their water use through new tech. <br />nologies; building expemive desalting plants; remov- <br />ing marginal land from irrigation; or even making <br />financial contributions 10 help reline irrigation ditches <br />with concrete, which should reduce Ihe salinitv from <br />farming projects. <br />The oil-shale industry also iaces potential salinitv <br />problems that could come trom beneath the ground. <br />Vast quantities 01 underground waters, perhaps .1<' <br />much as 25 million ane-ieet, lie under Ihe Piceance <br />Creek Basin. While the water at Ihe fOp of these <br />aquifers is generallv frE'sh. il dett>riorates rapidl~' until it <br /> <br /> <br />compacted (above). Industry e1t.perts say thiS compacting <br />creates a "relatlvely impermeable" substance <br /> <br /> <br />Heavy amounts of dust can rise from mining and crushing <br />operations. but Industry spokesmen say the dust can be <br />controlled with "good. careful housekeeping. .. <br /> <br />reaches .,alt levels a., much .1<' three times greater than <br />sea water. <br />Tract C-a. the first of the Colorado public land <br />oil-shale tracts, sits on top 01 one or mar€' aquifers. <br />When oil.sh.'11e mines reach these aquifers, savs <br />Fletcher, "the \\,]ter will spurt into the mines. The <br />companie.. will h.l\l> to pump like cr.1ZV to get the water <br />out. Then \\hat will you do with this water~" Oil.shale <br />t'"eculives insi<.t th,]l they will not relea..p any salty <br />water into thl;' Colorado River. And, in ian, John Rold, <br />dir(>({Of of thp Colorado Geological Survey .md co- <br />ch,]irman 01 Gm'. Vanderhoof'.. tas\.. force on oil shale, <br />savs lhp \\al('rs "have to b(' ta\..en care of or there will <br />be no oil-..hale indu..,rv." <br /> <br />Caves in hills/hills in gullies? <br /> <br />Beside.. air and water, the impact of a full-scale <br />oil-shalf' indu<,try-with il~ plants and mines, utilit\' <br />corridors .lnd ,]....o(iatpd urbanilation-\\ill fall heavily <br />on the land. According to the lfi'a..ing E15. a million- <br />bam'l-per-day industr\-' will di<.turb 80,000 acres oj land <br />o\'er .l )()-\ear period and 20,000 acre.., one-fourth 01 <br />this area, "\\ould be in ,] tot,]lfv unrec1aimed state at <br />an\ on(' time." <br /> <br />largl' land di..turbancE's alread\ are.l ..orl' point for <br />many "'ountain \Ve..t rl'sidenb. hN\ da\' tht'v watch <br />more and more of their sCl'nic and wilderness areas <br />going to dt'\elopers, coal miners, timber cullers, <br />uranium miner.., and no\\, od shaler... For the oil...hale <br />companit"<; the toughe.;,1 que..tinn.. on land use come in <br />regard 10 Iheir mines and espedallv Iheir "pent-.;,hale <br />pilt'... SomE' oil-shale critics have charged th,]t the <br />oil-sh,]le industr\ could change the whole topoWaphv <br />oi the rl'gion bv mining inlo plateaus to get atthp shale <br />and tht'n dumping the iormer high ground in the form <br /> <br />(\f("UTI\( \\hf 8l"'CH""R~ (01110' fdlru"" 1"~4 15 <br />