Abstract: An Overview of Oil Shale Development and the Environment

Howard W. Earnest

Oil shale development, as is the case with any industrial activity, has the potential for impacting the environment. The major areas of impact may include ground and surface water quality, air quality, residual wastes, visual landform changes, existing land uses, wildlife, and local socio-economic conditions. The environmental effects of oil shale projects have many common factors, but each project has site specific impacts which are related to location, mining and retorting methods, and post-retorting operations.

An overview of conditions common to recent oil shale projects associated with the Green River Formation in the Piceance basin in northwestern Colorado

is presented. Specific references are also made to the Rio Blanco Oil Shale Company's Tract-Ca project.

Environmental impacts will occur with any oil shale development, but acceptable remediation is possible given industry and public concerns, and the multitude of environmental laws and regulations that exist or will be enacted in the near future.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90986©1994 AAPG Annual Convention, Denver, Colorado, June 12-15, 1994