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III IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 999 DAILY SENTINEL Grand Junction, CO (Mesa County) M-F(PM), 2~ ;S(AM), 32,805 ~.~' ~ ~~ 3 01990 COLORADO PRESS Clipping~srviee 1336 Glenarm Place Denver CO 80204 (303) 571-5117 for clean ai~- NwMrer McGregor Deily Sentinel PICEANCE BASIN -Using sim- ple high school chemistry, NaTec Resources Inc. plans to soluti6n- mine millions of tons of sodium bi- carbonatehere. The industrial version of ordi- narybaking soda, it will be used to clean the sulfur dioxide and ni- trous oxide from coal-fired power plant emissions. "You've got a good thing going here," said Gov. Roy Romer when he toured the mine site Friday with company investors and local dignitaries. The first tons of sodium bicar- bonate, which should be ready for shipment by February 1991, will be used to retror;f scrubbers it Public Service Ca. of Colorado's Cherokee power plant in Denver. "This project is proof that west- ern Colorado can be part of the so- lution to eastern Colorado's air quality problems;' Romer said. Public Service Co. already uses sodium bicarbonate scrubbers at its Cameo plant, where [he tech- nologywas first tested. The $20 million mine and pro- cessing plant is expected to pro- duce about 125,000 tons of crystal- lized sodium bicarbonate a year, which will be trucked to Rifle and taken to Denver by rail. The Project will employ about 40 people and bring a $2.3 million an- nual payroll to Rio Blanco and Garfield counties. The 27-foot-thick seam of 85 per- ceat~ture sodium bicarbonate is 1,900 feet below this pinyon- an9 "This project is proof that western Colorado. can be part of the solution to eastern Colorado's air quality problems," Gov. Roy Romer said at groundbreaking ceremonies. juniper•covered plateau, said Na- Tec spokesman Roger Day of Rifle. Drillers will drill down to the seam, turn to drill horizontally through the seam, for as far as 3,000 feet, meeting another vertical shaft. Once the U-shaped hole is in place, workers will inject 200-0e- s gree water down one side, Which will dissolve the sodium bicar- bonate and bring [he solution up the other shag. By cooling the hot, bubbly solu- tion down to 80 degrees, about half the sodium bicarbonate will settle out, Day said. That's the high school chemistry pari. It will be dried, compacted into small crystals and shipped out. The water, meanwhile, will be reheated and pumped back down into the mine to dissolve more so- diumbicarbonate. On the surface, [here will be drilling pads, the processing plant and a 10-acre evaporation pond for WabO€Aater. .~ has solution