Colorado-based Western Resource Advocates' Peter Rossman is waiting for science and technology to prove — and not just in a laboratory — that large-scale shale oil operations will not siphon the area dry or contaminate groundwater sources.

"From all appearances right now it really appears it's going to take an enormous amount of water," Rossman said. "It's really not looking like our best energy option."

Rossman said politicians are rushing to let private industry secure leases for, in particular, shale development on public lands because it makes them look good as they tout energy independence and lower gas prices as justification for their actions. Rossman goes so far as to warn about an "industrialization" of the American West.

"That's basically what's going to be required to get significant amounts of energy out of the ground," he said on the phone.

Rossman and LeGate said if the water-friendly technology does exist for getting oil from shale, then it ought to be subject to rigorous testing to show it can work.

"To base our future on unproven technologies is not a wise choice," LeGate said.

Two analyses earlier this year of an environmental impact statement produced by the Bureau of Land Management say the BLM findings need a lot more research into shale and sands development's impact on water. The analyses by Lytle Water Solutions and Watershed Environmental looked at the impact if, as proposed, 1.9 million acres of public lands were leased for shale operations and 431,000 acres were made available for sands leasing.

First, however, oil interests will need to get permits through the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining, which spokesman Jim Springer said will consult with its own hydrologists to determine an operation's impact on the local watershed. He said permit applicants will also need to check in with state water regulators to examine water rights issues. Right now, Springer noted, there is no point of reference to determine what the overall impact on Utah's water resources will be.

In his analysis of the BLM's 2007 Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, Bruce Lytle said evaluating water supplies should be a critical part of the process before leases on public lands are granted for shale development.

"There remains great uncertainty regarding impacts of commercial-scale oil shale development," Watershed Environmental's March, 2008, analysis reads. "More broadly, the affected natural resources — water, air and land — are under greater pressure today than they were 25 years ago, with expanding population increasing the demand for water and land even as predicted climate change threatens to reduce the quality of both."

Alabama-based Oil Shale Exploration Co. (OSEC) says it is "aggressively leading the charge" in Utah to mine, process and market millions of barrels of oil from leases it already has in northeastern Utah. At the same time OSEC says water is "as precious as gold in the West," and that its operations will use less than two barrels of water for each barrel of oil produced from shale.

"OSEC will be working with local, state and federal governments, along with other industrial users, to forecast needs in the Uinta Basin in order to develop long-term programs to assure adequate water supplies," OSEC officials state on the company's Web site.

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E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com