GAO report: Unknowns swirl around oil shale development

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A new government report says oil shale development of deposits in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming remains a big question mark, hindered by the vast amount of uncertainties regarding its impact to the amount of water — and the quality of water — in the arid region.

Released Monday by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the report said it is estimated there are as many as 3 trillion barrels of oil in the Green River Formation, and developing ways to extract it have spanned a century.

Despite this, however, land managers have only just begun to explore probable impacts to groundwater and surface water, an effort described by the GAO as "nascent" and falling well short of what is needed to monitor impacts.

"In addition, there is a lack of coordination among federal agencies on water-related research and a lack of communicating results among themselves and to the state regulatory agencies," the report states.

About 72 percent of the oil shale deposits are located below federal ground, which the report says gives rise to federal agencies such as the U.S. Department of Interior and the U.S. Department of Energy to play key regulatory and management roles in the development of the resource.

It also means the federal government has a vested interest in being an active steward of the land and its water in an area that already is experiencing pressures from an over-allocated Colorado River system, the report noted.

Despite investments in water-related research projects totaling $4.8 million through federal-sponsored projects, the report said nearly all officials and experts who were contacted said there is "insufficient" data on water resources in Utah and Colorado, especially the movement of groundwater and its interaction with surface water.

Industry estimates vary about the amount of water required per barrel of oil produced — from one barrel to 12 barrels of water in certain extraction methods. That uncertainty — enhanced by fears of impacts to threatened or endangered fish and threats of contamination — have led some environmental groups to say the pursuit should be scrapped.

The U.S. Department of Interior, in October, granted approval for three oil shale demonstration projects to advance, including one near Vernal.

A number of recommendations were issued with the report, including developing "baseline" conditions related to water quality and water quantity in the region for future monitoring of oil shale development; creating models for interaction between groundwater and surface water in the area, as well as the possibility of the transport of contaminants; and getting all state and federal regulatory agencies in a "sharing mode" for research results.

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