Friday, August 24, 2007
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — As water managers from throughout Colorado agreed Thursday that water conservation is the key to dealing with climate change’s effects on the state’s water supply, Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., said oil shale development could use up whatever water remains in the Colorado River Basin.
Salazar, who spoke to a standing-room-only crowd at the Colorado Water Congress’ summer convention in Steamboat Springs, said later that he had heard oil shale development in northwest Colorado is likely to consume 100 percent of the available, or unappropriated, water in the entire Colorado River system.
But with disagreement over just how much water is left to be appropriated in the basin, he said he doesn’t know whether that level of water consumption from a future oil shale industry is acceptable.
A draft environmental impact study of the Bureau of Land Management’s commercial oil shale program, due later this year, is expected to address water consumption from oil shale development. But the House energy bill, expected to be debated and reconciled with the Senate energy bill next month, would delay the release of the study.
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