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Show ;J Coal slurry pipeline runs info wafer righi problem By Helene C. Monberg Vernal Express Washington Correspondent Washington -Reclamation Commissioner Commis-sioner Robert N. Broadbent discusses w ith some emotion, the value of the proposal pro-posal by W. R. Grace & Co. to use saline Colorado River w ater to transport up to 15 million tons of coal from Colorado ynH l't;ih annii;il!v In thp West Coast but the question immediately comes up: what about state water rights? W. R. Grace claims to have lined up some 12.000 acre feet of fresh water for consumptive use out of the Vampa River to move the coal just a few miles from Axial to Rifle on Colorado's Western Slope. Rep. Hank Brown. R-Colo., who currently represents the area, is not impressed, in the face of the estimate that the pipeline w ill use up to 20.000 acre -feet of water. Brow n. w ho currently splits Congressional Congres-sional representation of the Western Slope with Rep. Ray Kogovsek. D-Colo.. makes it very clear where he w ill stand on the issue, despite the plan for the pipeline to take up to 250.000 tons of salt annually out of the Colorado River. "Unless Colorado gets credit for the exported water under the Colorado River compact. I cannot support the plan. I could support it only under those conditions. Grace w ill have to come up with two acre -feet of water to replace the water that Colorado will export by the project, and Colorado must get credit for the water" for Brown to get behind the project. Brow n told this correspondent cor-respondent on April 23. Kogovsek takes a similar view . When he introduced the new Colorado River salinity bill earlier this month, he included in-cluded a provision w hich would require that the proposal be compatible with Colorado law , w hich prohibits export of water that the state believes it's entitled entitl-ed to. The Colorado River Basin Salinity control Forum headquartered in Salt Lake City is supposed to be looking at the water rights issue hard. But it is no secret that William McDonald, director of Colorado's Water Conservation Board, is under pressure from the other Colorado River Basin states to get Colorado Col-orado to go along w ith the plan. By all accounts, it's a good plan. "It would contribute to solving our balance of payments problem" by exporing Western coal from Western Colorado and Southern Utah coal fields abroad." and by reducing the salinity of the Colorado Col-orado River," Broadbent told this correspondent cor-respondent in an interview on April 22. Interior officially endorsed the concept in a letter to Grace on April 22. Colorado River salinity is a major concern to the seven Colorado -River basin states Arizona. California. Colorado, Col-orado, New Mexico. Nevada, Utah and Wyoming as it is on the increase in the Basin, with new water developments along the course of the Colorado River. The Colorado River Basin system provides pro-vides water to some 15 million water users along the river. It is of major con- ; cern to California, which has major " farmland dependent on Colorado River . water. The seven Basin states put thru 1 a provision in the 1974 Colorado River Z salinity Act which provided for some " clean up of salinity mainly in the Upper Up-per Basin, and mainly in Colorado and Utah, as well as settling this country's problem with Mexico over Colorado River salinity. The problem is, as Broadbent pointed out in ihe April 22 interview, that virtually vir-tually none of the plans or projects to date "has a favorable benefit cost ratio. We simply have to look for those which are most cost effective," Broadbent Broad-bent said. So w hen the Bureau of Reclamation came up w ith a study a couple of years ago about potential use of saline Colorado Col-orado River water to earn' commerce and for other industrial purposes. Ira E. McKeever, Jr.. president of W.R. Grace & Co's western mining opera- tions. hit on the coal pipeline idea. Because Grace is "the of Grace's ; Washington office. Grace conceived of : the idea of moving the finely ground : coal in plastic bags to keep it dry rather than in the saline water itself. . like other coal pipelines. Grace claims '. this is different from a regular coal slurry pipeline because the coal is kept dry for later shipment abroad, rather I than having to be dewatered before ex- ' port. Grace calls the project "aquatrain." : Basically Grace proposes to build a 36 -inch pipeline stretching from near Axial. Colo, to the Pacific Coast of , California, about 1.200 miles. The coal : would be moved in burnable, plastic :" bags 30 inches by 15 feet in size with .' each one carrying between 34 tons of coal. Up to 15 million tons of coal would be mined and cleaned in Colorado and Utah to feed the pipeline annually. W.R. Grace has about 12.000 acre-feet of water rights which would be used to transport the coal from Axial to Rifle to ? replace the saline water that would be 5 used in the pipeline. Grace's water : rights are on the Vampa River, where f the water is relatively fresh, so it is claiming that it is replacing the saline t water that would be used in the , pipeline. But all of the water is in the c Colorado River Basin. The Interior Department is en- -thusiastic about the project which r would take up to six-seven years to t construct. The studies alone will cost t $ti-$7 million and will be split in cost between Interior and Grace, according to Broadbent. Grace is actively looking t for industrial partners in the project. ? |