This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2010, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
It would be bad for the Western United States to run out of energy. It would be much worse for it to run out of water.
And, as there are a lot more energy sources than there are water sources out here in the arid West, it would be folly itself to pursue even a truly promising new energy supply if it had a high likelihood of consuming or polluting our all-too-limited water supply.
That is what the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, was on about recently when it issued a call for more research and coordination among the agencies that will be involved in planned efforts to unlock the maybe 3 trillion barrels of oil now trapped in oil shale deposits in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming.
If that sounds like a lot of oil, it is. Just the estimated amount of shale oil to be found in those three states is roughly equal to the whole world's known reserves of petroleum. The temptation to go after it is strong, and not just among the companies that stand to profit from the enterprise.
It would be a domestic source of energy that wouldn't be subject to embargo. It would create a lot of jobs and, because most of the known shale deposits are on or under federal land, it could be a giant source of budget-balancing royalty revenue for the taxpayer.
But the temptations are not based on clear thinking. Really, oil shale is just another carbon-based fossil fuel. It would pollute the air, change the climate, tear up scenic landscapes and leave behind all manner of environmental and social damage.
The GAO study focused on just one of the big problems associated with oil shale extraction: water. We don't really know what methods would be used to get all that oil out of the shale rock that's holding it. But the technologies being explored are very thirsty processes. GAO says it would take maybe an average of 5 barrels of water, maybe up to 14 barrels in extreme cases, to recover one barrel of shale oil.
The need for water in shale oil processes throughout the region could easily be great enough to rival the amount of water consumed each year by metropolitan Denver.
There are a lot of "maybes" in the study because the technology that would be used for shale oil extraction is still experimental. If the Energy and Interior departments heed the GAO's sound advice, start commissioning and collating research, and later require every oil shale project license to include a thorough analysis of the impact each enterprise would have on the local water supply, that alone may prove to be the hurdle that stops the whole sorry prospect.