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<br /> <br />The Trona Refinery in <br />Sweetwater County, Wyomin~ <br />by <br />Henry Harris, FMC Corporation <br />Westvoco, WYoming <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />I understand that you gentlemen are responsible, or, at least, the <br />agencies which you represent, are responsible for the management of <br />600 billion gallona a day of fresh water in the United States; i.e., <br />your portion of the Pacific Southwest. <br /> <br />Six hundred billion gallona a day seems like a lot of water. I don't <br />know what our share is out here, I suppose that is significant. It <br />is probably adequate for the needs'if well managed, but it is less than <br />three percent of the world's water. I'm bringing coals to new castle; <br />I think I see it in your thinking. But this is information that I only <br />became aware of after I began work with the 208 Committee in Wyoming. <br /> <br />We became very interested in what is our share of water?, how it is <br />used, and what are the priorities? So I am repeating a little bit of <br />what I was exposed to. How we use our three percent in the United <br />States is going to be very important in the future. I think that we <br />in our industry are using it effectively, but we must be more efficient <br />in how we use it. An article that I read recently reported on the high <br />uae of water in the production of some of the things that are essential <br />to our way of life; e.g., the production of steel requires 30,000 gal- <br />lona of water to produce a ton of steel and to produce a ton of paper <br />requires 150,000 gallons of freah water. I suppose the moral of thia <br />story is that only a gallon of water ia required to produce a pint of <br />beer. Now, if you want to set your priorities, then, I guess that is <br />the way to do it. In our business, we do have constraints, but we wind <br />up using about 575 gallons of water per ton. Of course, we are aiming <br />for the lowest per unit use. Because of governmental regulationa, at <br />the present time, there is no water recycle. That leads me to the sub- <br />ject of the present benevolence of nature. In southwestern Wyoming, we <br />don't have the plethora of trees that exist in the Northwest Region, <br />but we do have minerals. <br /> <br />The most unique mineral deposit in the world, Trona, exists in Sweet- <br />water County, I mean that literally, it is unique. We, and many other <br />companies, have searched over this whole world for something that is <br />similar. The mineral itself is not highly valuable in dollars per ton, <br />but it is essential to our way of life. The mineral ia used in many <br />ways. There are only two other areas, really, where such a chemical is <br />derived, one ia from a lake in Kenya, Africa and the other is from a <br />lake in California. Most of those are relatively insignificant as for <br />the sources of this mineral. <br /> <br />The reason we are blessed in Wyoming, is that we have probable reserves <br />that are economic, not only at the present time, but will be economical <br /> <br />C-12 <br />