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Shell Stakes Claim on Yampa River
Oil company seeking water to develop shale
The race to secure water for oil shale has moved to the Yampa River, one of the last few streams in the West with liquid to spare.
Yampa River (flickr photo from dqmountaingirl used under Creative Commons license) Shell Oil Co. has staked a new claim on the scenic waterway, seeking millions of gallons of H20 to support future plans for oil shale, said spokesman Tracy Boyd.
"This would be one of the more substantial water rights we're accumulating," Boyd said. The company has a wide array of water rights in the Colorado Basin, which includes the Yampa and White rivers.
The Yampa has come under close scrutiny in recent years not only because it lies close to West Slope oil shale deposits but also because it's viewed as an important source of new water for Colorado's Front Range.
Shell's claim to the river is for 375 cubic feet per second, or about 750 acre-feet per day. One acre foot is enough to serve two urban homes for one year.
The company has said it would divert the water only during peak runoff periods in the spring and that any move to take water out of the river and store it is at least a decade away.
"We would not initiate any activity until we made a decision on whether to move forward with commercial development," Boyd said.
The dramatic fall in oil prices this fall has likely slowed that development, but Shell has been accumulating water rights for decades in hopes that eventually the technologies to extract the shale will become viable.
"Regardless of where oil prices are," Boyd said, "we think the opportunity is great and the benefit is great. We plan to continue our slow and methodical approach and stay the course."
Though people are scarce in the Yampa Valley, water isn't. The Yampa generates about as much water as the South Platte River, which supplies millions of people who live in metro Denver and the northern Front Range.
State officials are in the midst of a study to quantify how much water is left in the Colorado River and its tributaries, the Yampa and White rivers.
Tucked into the wild, northwestern corner of the state, the Yampa has long been isolated from the growth and development pressures that dog other parts of the state.
Two years ago, the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District suggested building a $4 billion pipeline to deliver water from a point near Maybell hundreds of miles east to the Front Range.
But Northern didn't stake a claim to the river, saying it would wait to see if others in the state were interested in pursuing the project.
Northern spokesman Brian Werner said Shell's stake in the river would not preclude Front Range entities from tapping its resources as well.
"It makes sense because that's where the water is in the state," he said.
Until recent years, the ranchers and coal miners who owned water rights in the Yampa could take as much water as they liked.
Though the state has been tightening its oversight of the river, it is still a wild place.
Tom Sharp, longtime water attorney who represents the Upper Yampa River Water Conservation District, wants to make sure the river's supplies are protected for the people of the valley.
"One single 45,000 acre-foot reservoir we can probably work with," Sharp said. "But if there was also a Front Range diversion, it magnifies the pressure, and it will make it riskier for us."
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19 Comments so far
Show AllJust exactly how does one "stake a claim" to river water?
-- ekaton aka d.k.shaw
Dear Ekaton,
One simply buys enough politicians in Washington to get the job done.
The exact question I was going to raise. This is not the California gold fields, and this is not 1852.
If this is a tributary of the Colorado, it is already oversubscribed for water by the various states through which it runs. This is insanity to the 9th degree. Leave the rivers alone, use solar power.
Kitty Lady
Remember that Shell just walked away from an $8 billion expansion for the Alberta Tar Sands project because of the steep drop in oil prices.
It costs approximately $70/bbl to extract and process the bitumen from the Tar Sands into a usable liquid form, a process that uses the equivalent of 33 barrels of oil and thousands of liters of water per barrel.
And extracting so-called 'shale oil' will be even more expensive and water intensive.
My bet? Shell is going to try to control who gets the water period. Cites downstream will pay a premium for Shell to NOT use the water for the extraction process.
Walk in peace.
Don't worry. The Alberta Tar Sands will be revisited once the price of oil goes right back up and it's already starting its rise.
Galenwainwright - "My bet? Shell is going to try to control who gets the water period. Cites downstream will pay a premium for Shell to NOT use the water for the extraction process"
I think you hit the nail on the head!
The Yampa is part of the Colorado River watershed so any water diverted by Shell will affect water availability in Nevada, Arizona, Southern California and Mexico. The flow into Mexico is governed by treaty.
gladeparkgal
As a resident of western Colorado, this is certainly good news. More oil developement, drilling, more Halliburton trucks everywhere, more impact on those pesky animals in the area, not to mention all that wild space - must do something with it. And now, less water, all in the name of energy. Oil shale extraction is insane, as someone above pointed out - it take more energy to produce it then it will give. These greedy bastards - nothing matters to them but money. Here on the Western slope, it's called progress and very little is being done to stop it. Hell, the BLM can't wait to give the land away; 100% of drilling permits granted this past fall. That picture of the river with the article is really the way it looks, currently anyway.
busterkikki
You people think you have problems. Hyperion, a Canadian Company, has bullied the people in Spink South Dakota to approve their application to build a refinery on 3200 acres of prime farm land for processing shale oil which they will pipe down from Canada. That makes no sense, but greed has little in common with sense. The oil, as some of you have said, is filthy and gooey thick. How can it be piped all the way down here in that condition? And why wouldn't it make more sense to refine it in Canada? Well, because those people don't want the mess. So they want to pipe it to us.
By taking 12,000,000 gallons of water every single day from the Missouri River, which has been below its once normal letters for ten years or more to do the processing. Canada can keep its own water. We need it ourselves, but they have bewitched a few hundred people who couldn't care less. Just give us the money.
These people will destroy this country for their greed, avarice and lying tactics.
As a Canadian, please accept my appolgies for the behavior of this reprehensible corporation.
Walk in peace.
You're not the culprit so no need for you to apologize for a crime you did not commit. It's the corporation that must apologize.
Terrance Mitchell
Redfield, South Dakota
South Dakota is "easy" to bully and rape when it comes to corporate takeovers especially if they're oily. Too bad we couldn't get the right to legalize Cannabis anywhere close to passing unlike North Dakota ! This South Dakotan does not accept such despicable behavior but unfortunately most people in most state think oil is "life" and will fall for the ploy.
Terrance Mitchell
Redfield, South Dakota
busterkikki
That's progress!?
Maybe municipalities or states along these rivers should go after these water rights. New York City built reservoirs in the Delaware and Hudson watersheds something like 100 (150?) years ago. NYC even purchased property all around the reservoirs to minimize pollution getting to the water, and has the cleanest river fed water supply in the world. Imagine that! Cleaner water in NYC than in the boonies of Colorado, especially after they start mining and processing the shale.
Stay what course ??? http://www.wisecountyissues.com
Don't miss this outstanding interview, George Monbiot meets (literally grills!) Jeroen van de Veer, chief executive of Shell. He really took him to task on this topic and pulled no punches. I'm amazed that van de Veer even agreed to do the interview. It aired on the Guardian.co.uk two days ago.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2009/jan/06/george-monbiot-jeroen-van-de-veer
gladeparkgal
Interesting interview. Thanks for posting. Should be on the mainstream US news.