Laserfiche WebLink
• <br />ExxonMobil Global Services <br />Colony Shale Oil Project <br />ESR Reclamation Studies <br />Weighing Lysimeter Performance 1990-2003 <br />Project No. 353 <br />Page 8 <br />to the "conceptual pile design" and how those translated into specific aspects of the ESR plots <br />layout are presented in Appendix A. <br />3.2 Overview of Previous Water Balance Studies Applicable to this Project <br />Numerous studies had been performed by university researchers, the EPA, and project <br />developers during the 1970s and early 1980s. Of these, the three most relevant to spent shale pile <br />design for Colony using an ESR fluid bed combusting retort are the following: <br />• "Field Studies on Parahce Retorted Oil Shale Lysimeters; Leachate, Vegetation, Moisture, <br />Salinity and Runoff,1977-1980", by Kilkelly et a1, 1981 <br />• "Field Studies on USBM and TOSCO II Retorted Shales, Vegetation, Moisture, Salinity <br />. and Runoff, 1977-1980", by IGikeliy et al, 1981 <br />and <br />• "Water Requirements for Stabilization of Spent Shale," Wymore, 1974. <br />The first two listed studies were EPA funded research that included field plots with moisture <br />measurement via neutron probes, the only feasible means at the time. The Parahce study was carried <br />out at U.S. DOE's Anvil Points research facility, and consisted of 24 concrete cells approximately 8 <br />feet deep and 43 feet long, equipped with runoff catchment gutters and leachate collection systems. <br />Although all of the cells were constructed within 100 feet of one another, half of the cells were <br />described as "low elevation" cells, while the other half were termed "high elevation" plots. The <br />difference was that surface sprinklers were used on the "high elevation" cells to simulate the greater <br />annual precipitation at higher elevation sites. The Anvil Points facility, had it progressed further, <br />would likely have disposed of its spent shale at a relatively low elevation (~ 5,600 feet) in the <br />Colorado River valley floor just south of the mine, whereas of the potential private development <br />projects were for the most part on top of the plateau, at elevations generally over 7,000 feet. It is <br />• assumed this is the reason for the parallel studies for spent shale piles at high and low elevations. <br />LACHEL FELICE & Associates <br />