17

• Board Meeting Date: 7/11/2007
• Description: WSP Section - Intrastate Water Planning - Oil Shale Water Use
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

STATE OF COLORADO

Colorado Water Conservation Board

Department of Natural Resources
1313 Sherman Street, Room 721
Denver, Colorado 80203
Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]
www.cwcb.state.co.us

MEMORANDUM

Bill Ritter, Jr.
Governor

TO:

Colorado Watcr Conservation Board Members

Randy Seaholm, Chief Water Supply Protection Section ~
Rick Brown, Chief Intrastate Water Management and
Development

Harris D. Sherman
Executive Director

FROM:

Rod Kuharich
CWCB Director

Dan McAuliffe
Deputy Director

DATE:

June 28, 2007

SUBJECT: Agenda Item 17, July 11-12, 2007 Board Meeting--
Water Supply Protection, Intrastate Water Planning-Oil Shale Water Use

Background

The purpose of this agenda item is to review the amount of water the oil shale industry
anticipated using in the 1980's and to begin to compare those estimatcs with uses
anticipated with today's tec1mology. We will also attempt to compare the magnitude of
today's proposed production with those anticipated in the early 1980's. The resurgence
of interest in oil shale and energy development on the west slope of Colorado in gencral,
has been generated by the increased cost of oil per barrel which as been as high as $80
recently and the recent passage of the comprehensive Energy Policy Act of2005.
Colorado has been cooperating with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on a Draft
Programmatic EIS (DPEIS) to look at the renewed efforts to develop energy on the west
slope. In addition, BLM resource management plans are being reviewed and updated and
need to be coordinated with the DPEIS.

Estimated Uses in the 1980's:
Based on a September 1980 paper by J. William McDonald, then Director of the
Colorado Water Conservation Board, it was estimated that a 50,000 bbl\day plant would
consumptively use approximately 5,700 AF of water per year. In addition, the
consumptive use attributable to spin-off growth was estimated to be another 15 to 20
percent of the consumption by the industry itself. This results in an estimate annual
consumption of 6,840 AF per 50,000 bbl\day of production. Thus, the total average
annual consumption for a 1.5 million bbl\day industry was estimated to be about 200,000