Integrated Assessment of Water Resources Requirement and Impacts From Large Scale Oil Shale Development in the Western Energy Corridor

There is a compelling case to evaluate oil shale development in the Western Energy Corridor of the United States to create a secure, domestic, world-class transportation fuel resource. However, development of energy and mineral resources in this largely rural area will create increasing competition and impacts for limited resources of water, air, habitat, and landscape.  Local communities, infrastructures, and economies will face increasing demand for resources, roads, power, labor, and other support services. Within the context of these multiple interrelated systems, the potential water resources requirements and impacts as well as the carbon footprint and associated management alternatives need to be evaluated with in an integrated assessment.  Therefore, we have developed an integrated assessment model, CLEAR_UFF (CLimate Energy Assessment for Resiliency – Unconventional Fossil Fuels), to evaluate potential fuel production capacity from oil shale within environmental limits, regulations, and economic profitability. Our current research focuses on the impact of oil shale production on water demand and impacts, with analysis of use, pollution, storage capacity, and the impacts regional carbon capture and subsurface storage including waste water and potential re-use alternatives.  The CLEAR_UFF model is developed integrating sectors of society and the economy with spatially explicit process models for regional hydrology and carbon management.  The modular CLEAR model enables integration energy and water flows through the critical fuel development processes such as drilling, heating, producing, reclamation, and upgrading for potential In-Situ processes. Here we will present primarily the water resources assessments associated with our project.