| Show II Federal panel hears reports Utah Colorado traits tracts Officials from the private and public sectors of the oil shale business gathered for fora a meeting of the federal Oil Shale En En- Environmental Advisory Panel The meetings provided a barometer for shale oil development Three firms have moved ahead with tract develop develop- development development ment while a fourth has been producing oil for seven years Some surprises came up D Development has been stopped on Colorado tract C-a C the Rio Blanco project to await the out out- outcome come of a legislative tangle over whether or not the Bureau of Land Management can lease adjacent land for spent shale deposits And White River Shale on Oil Corp of announced that they pushed their production schedule back two years in order to have more time to study retort system technology At the same time they introduced changes in their detail ed development plan submitted to the US Department of Interior Oil Shale Of Of- Office fice The oil shale panel met Tuesday and Wednesday mornings at the Elks Lodge 75 North West 1 Property taxes In the opening session White River Corp President Robert N Pratt said a depressed oil mark market t worldwide hasn't changed the firms firm's oil shale plans In our review process were we're not looking at flat oil prices he said As were we're looking look look- lookIng Ing at it theres there's plenty of room for us to move If we can get the technology to work Pratt said the company has a fallback Callback position should the process tentatively planned on by Union Oil Co not work We dont don't anticipate that he said The changes better plans for phase two development they added The company hasn't changed its mine development plans a and d expects between and workers on the tracts through 1985 with a jump to 1700 a few years later Chairman Henry O 0 Ash noted as he opened the meeting that the last time the panel met in Vernal In 1979 a federal court injunction stalled the White River project The court issue was whether Utah would get its fair share of oC lease payments for tracts U-a U and As he closed the two day y meeting Ash said he couldn't be sure whether Interior Secretary James Watt would renew the panels panel's charter before the end of the year Panel member Clark R Watson an industry representative told Ash humorously We dont don't have a powerful eastern senator to support us So If you need any help with that let us know The panels panel's visit included a tour of the White River projECt about 45 mU miles s southeast of Vernal and the Deseret Generation and Transmission Cooperative power plant about six miles away The panel includes a wide spectrum of government representation from the federal to local levels including county commissioners from areas impacted by bythe bythe the industry Charles R Henderson Uin tab tah County Energy consultant sat in for H County Commissioner Neal H Domgaard Agencies represented included the Vernal and Craig Colo districts the US Forest Service the US Park Service the federal Environmental Protection Pro Pro- Protection Agency the US Fish and Continued on Oi I g sha shaie Ie ie Continued from Crom page 1 Wildlife e Service the federal depart ments of Transportation and Energy and the Colorado Department of oC Health Other Interior Department agencies in in- in eluded the Bureau of Mines the Minerals Management Service the US Geological Survey and the Bureau of In In- In Indian dian Affairs The lead federal agency involved in shale oil development is the Interior Departments Department's Oil Shale Office part of the Minerals Management Service The Interior Department created the Minerals Service in December from the conservation Divi lion sion of the The Oil Shale Office and the Oil Shale Environmental Advisory Panel were created In the mid to administer the oil shale leasing program The panels panel's charter went into effect in February 1974 and expired in December 1977 Interior Secretary Cecil B Andruss renewed it in August 1978 White Rivers River's year two delay means only a delay in the start of production Construction projects planned through the end of 1983 will proceed starting with witha a a mine services ces building and the sinking of two shafts Jim Godlove White River Corp director tor of environmental affairs told the panel the firm delayed production because of realities of oC oil shale develop develop- development development ment ment The reason involves White WhiteRiver's WhiteRiver's Rivers River's investigation of retort technology said Godlove The firm has come very close to com com- committing itself to Union Oil Co Cos Co's s 's retorting process White River bought a license from Union for the process recently enabling the firms firm's engineers to watch the process shale oil project site east of Grand Junction As we design and build there will be constant changes in the original plant plan said Lowell Page WhIte River mining manager He is working with White WhiteRiver's WhiteRiver's Rivers River's design unit in Pasadena Calif A major change in the detailed design plan involves digging a conveyor belt decline shaft instead of a vertical shaft The shaft will be dug on a sharp v v shaped course to put the end of it in the area where vertical shafts were ed cd The design allows for the first leg of they to continue straight into the U b tract for later stages of development It will be the largest shaft contract in inthe inthe the United States A lot of oC people are in In- In Interested said Page We really dont don't want to quote numbers But the decline per foot Coot of advance is less expensive than thana a shaft Where we find sign significant advantage advantage tage is that declination doesn't require a hoist Page said lower long term long term costs for maintenance and operation make the in- in in cline a better method Its It's simpler too and mor morg reliable We dont don't wan want to prototyPe anything we dont don't have to You get enough surprises he said A pair of underground along the beginning of oC the conveyor route will reduce the size of the shale chunks for a ton stockpile on the surface Engineers haven't decided whether trucks or conveyor belts will take shale from the mining rooms to the first A 30 wide foot ventilation tion shaft will be drilled soon A foot 30 service shaft should be ready by 1986 according to Page Phase two will include a third ver- ver vertical vertical shaft for exhaust The building schedule predicts comple- comple completion completion tion of the mine services building by February if concrete can be poured before winter The building will cover square feet A power line and water runoff work should be finished by bythe bythe the middle of next year Another major phase one project is waste water retention dam Godlove said the site has been moved so that part of the dam would sit on land off of oC the White River tracts The company has ap ap- applied plied tor a lease he said Chairman Ash informed the rest of the panel about a study indicating deposits of oC marl stone a permeable rock at the dam site Godlove said White WhiteRiver WhiteRiver River Corp would design the best reser- reser reservoir reservoir voir possible to keep leaks at a minimum We approach It from one point of view all ponds leak A core clay lined darn dam offers a choice We are proposing an elaborate monitoring system Our in in- in determined that should leakage occur with this design we have havethe havethe the best chance of controlling it Panel member Harold Boeker of the US Fish and Wildlife Service express express- expressed expressed ed concern about a golden eagle nest in inthe inthe the area proposed for Cor spent shale deposits Rocker Boeker said federal regulations allow moving of raptor nests for the pur pose of scientific study mitigation Included In a wildlife impact mitigation tion agreement for the White River pro pro- project activity would have to be kept away from nests between February and April said Godlove We agreed to do so reluctantly because because we dont don't believe the nests are ar active he said Panel members asked questions about secondary resource recovery for energy use Page said those ideas were considered He said that solar heating of air pumped into the mine would be impractical impractical because of the fast circulation planned a million half cubic feet per minute Page said recovery of methane gas would be also You dilute the gas so much that recovery is pro pro- prohibitively prohibitively expensive If you dont don't dilute it you cant can't live In there he said g The gas probably can not be bled off as in coal mines because the rock isn't very permeable ble About 75 percent of the gas would be liberated during blasting said Page Wallace R Hansen of the a apanel apanel panel member said nearly cubic yards oft of top p soil is at the retention dam damsite site for use to reseed areas Said Godlove Godlove In the plant canyon area White River has about cubic yards of excess materials We feel we weare weare are recovering a tremendous amount |
