Surface Water Quality Parameters For Monitoring Oil Shale Development

Author : Anu K. Mittal
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 14 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (747 download)

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Download or read book Energy Development and Water Use written by Anu K. Mittal and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 14 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Oil shale development could have significant impacts on the quantity and quality of surface and groundwater resources, but the magnitude of these impacts is unknown. For example, it is not possible to quantify impacts on water resources with reasonable certainty because it is not yet possible to predict how large an oil shale industry may develop. The size of the industry would have a direct relationship to water impacts. According to BLM, the level and degree of the potential impacts of oil shale development cannot be quantified because this would require making many speculative assumptions regarding the potential of the oil shale, unproven technologies, project size, and production levels. Commercial oil shale development requires water for numerous activities throughout its life cycle; however, we found that estimates vary widely for the amount of water needed to produce oil shale. These variations stem primarily from the uncertainty associated with reclamation technologies for in-situ oil shale development and because of the various ways to generate power for oil shale operations, which use different amounts of water. We calculated estimates of the minimum, maximum, and average amounts of water that could be needed for each of the five groups of activities that comprise the life cycle of oil shale development. Based on our calculations, we estimated that about 1 to 12 barrels of water could be needed for each barrel of oil produced from in-situ operations, with an average of about 5 barrels; and about 2 to 4 barrels of water could be needed for each barrel of oil produced from mining operations with a surface retort operation, with an average of about 3 barrels. In October 2010, we reported that water is likely to be available for the initial development of an oil shale industry, but the eventual size of the industry may be limited by the availability of water and demands for water to meet other needs. Since 2006, the federal government has sponsored over $22 million of research on oil shale development and of this amount about $5 million was spent on research related to the nexus between oil shale development and water. Even with this research, we reported that there is a lack of comprehensive data on the condition of surface water and groundwater and their interaction, which limits efforts to monitor and mitigate the future impacts of oil shale development. Currently DOE funds most of the research related to oil shale and water resources, including research on water rights, water needs, and the impacts of oil shale development on water quality. Interior also performs limited research on characterizing surface and groundwater resources in oil shale areas and is planning some limited monitoring of water resources.