WATER RESOURCE CHALLENGES ASSOCIATED WITH OIL SHALE DEVELOPMENT

The United States' dependence on imported oil carries an immense financial and security cost; sending hundreds of billions of dollars overseas each year and forcing the U.S. military to station troops in unstable parts of the world. These liabilities, coupled with surging global demand for oil, has reignited interest in developing the U.S.'s domestic oil shale resources located in the Piceance and Uinta basins of Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming. Developing these resources could significantly reduce U.S. oil imports, while improving the domestic economy and creating high-value jobs in areas that have few other options for economic development. However, oil shale development would impact relatively pristine lands and further stress the region's limited water resources.

If these oil shale resources were developed using technologies tested and partially deployed in the 1970's and 1980's; then production of 1 million barrels per day of oil (~10% of current U.S. imports) would require approximately 0.1 – 0.35 million acre-feet per year of water. This equates to ~2 – 5% of the Upper Basin water allocations in the Colorado River Compact; and would require the construction of extensive infrastructure to manage surface water. However, this burden can be greatly reduced through adoption of new technologies and innovative water planning. One intriguing option is to use utilize “unconventional water”, such as deep saline aquifers and produced water from oil and gas wells for oil shale development – thereby reducing the burden on surface water resources and providing for more environmentally benign disposal of current wastewater effluent. This paper will investigate new strategies for water management and enumerate the technological and policy challenges that must be overcome to enable innovative water planning and use.