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Below the Parachute Creek.Member is the Garden Gulch Member, where the oil shale is <br />characterized as clay rich, roughly 60% clay and 40% carbonate, in contrast to the carbonate -rich <br />Parachute Creek oil shale, which is roughly 60% carbonate and 40% clay. The oil shale Interval <br />within the Parachute Creek and Garden Gulch Members is further subdivided lithologically into <br />seventeen alternating rich (R) and lean (L) oil shale stratigraphic zones. Shell has targeted a zone in <br />the R4 Seal within the Parachute Creek Member for shale oil recovery. <br />The Garden Gulch Member underlies the Parachute Creek Member and is more than 100 feet thick - <br />in the RDD Lease area. Like the overlying Parachute Creek Member, the Garden Gulch Member can <br />be subdivided into rich and lean oil shale zones. The uppermost zone is designated the LI zone, and <br />the contact between the L1 and the overlying R2 is called the `Blue Marker.' The L1 zone is <br />composed of clay -rich lean oil shale and claystone and is about 17 feet thick. The L1 zone is <br />underlain by the R1 zone, which is about 130 feet thick and composed of clay -rich oil shale. Below <br />the R1 zone is the LO zone. It ranges in thickness from 20 to 30 feet and has low -grade oil shale. <br />The LO zone has a distinct influence on geophysical logs (density and resistivity). Early workers <br />referred to this geophysical "kick" as the "Orange Marker." Below the LO zone is the lowermost <br />continuous interval of oil shale in the Green River Formation, the RO zone. It is similar to the R1 zone <br />and is composed of clay -rich oil shale and in one drill core it was found to be about 127 feet thick. ' <br />Below the RO zone additional thin beds of clay -rich oil shale are present, though they are <br />interbedded with considerable quantities of sandstone, siltstone and lacustrine shale. • <br />Hydrogeologlc Setting <br />The primary water - bearing zones that exist in this area are within the Uinta, Green River and <br />• Wasatch Formations. The first encountered groundwater in the RDD Project Site Is approximately <br />. 300 feet below ground surface In the Uinta Formation. The general groundwater flow pattern is from <br />the outer perimeter of the basin, where most recharge occurs, toward the center of the basin where <br />there is discharge to the perennial streams, more active evapotranspiration, and a greater frequency <br />of springs. <br />The Uinta Formation extends downward generally from ground surface and is moderately <br />transmissive due to its relatively low permeability. At the basin scale, the Uinta Is conceptualized as <br />an unconfined aquifer, with stratigraphic heterogeneity that imparts varying degrees of confinement <br />to the deeper strata. "Tongues" of low permeability, kerogen - bearing strata exist in the lower portion <br />of the Uinta and these provide confinement to underlying stratigraphic units. <br />Historically, the Green River Formation has been conceptualized as a sequence of relatively <br />transmissive lean zones (i.e., less kerogen), which are each confined by overlying and underlying <br />rich zones (i.e., more kerogen) having very low permeability. Within the Parachute Creek Member of <br />the Green River, the Dissolution Surface Is a post - depositional subsurface dissolution feature and <br />represents the lowermost penetration of circulating groundwater into the Parachute Creek Member. <br />Above the Dissolution Surface, nahcolite and halite have been largely dissolved away by migrating <br />groundwater, leaving an array of collapse breccias, nodular leach cavities, and otherwise permeable <br />rock wherein pore spaces have derived by the dissolution of nahcolite and halite. <br />Nearly all groundwater in the Green River formation flows through the secondary porosity fractures <br />and dissolution/collapse features as the fine- grained porous matrix is nearly impermeable. The lean <br />zones tend to be more brittle, contain a higher degree of fracturing, and are thus much more <br />permeable than the rich zones. <br />Permit CO32210-00000 S riNAL P!_RM1T Statement of Basis <br />