Shell oil has applied for a decree for 8% of the annual Yampa River flow, according to a report from Mark Jaffe writing for the Denver Post. From the article:
Shell Oil, seeking to buttress its oil-shale plans, has filed for the first major water right on northwest Colorado's Yampa River -- the last river basin in the state with unappropriated water. Shell's snap-up of about 8 percent of the Yampa's peak spring water flow may complicate Front Range plans to move water from the river by pipeline and comes as energy companies scramble to secure water rights. Energy companies control about 26 percent of the flow and 56 percent of the water storage volume in the Upper Colorado Basin, according to a study by planning groups for the Colorado, Yampa and White rivers...
The Shell application for a conditional water right, filed Dec. 30 in Water Court in Steamboat Springs, seeks to take 375 cubic feet per second of water from the river. That represents about 8 percent of the average April-to-June flow. "That is a lot of water," said Jim Pokrant, a spokesman for the Colorado River Water District. There is no direct charge for obtaining unappropriated water. But an applicant must prove to a water court that the water will be put to beneficial use and that the proposed plan is viable. If there are challenges to the application, it could take 18 months and tens of thousands of dollars to get the water right, said Bart Miller, water project director for Western Resource Advocates...
Shell's plan is to pump the water into a new reservoir covering 1,000 acres and holding 45,000 acre-feet of water. "This is part of our strategy to develop diversified resources so we can reduce our impact on other water users," said Tracy Boyd, a Shell spokesman. Shell would take water only during the high-flow spring period, Boyd said...
The Yampa flow between April and June averages 4,740 cfs at the town of Maybell, which is just above the proposed Shell intake, according to U.S. Geological Survey data.
The average flow drops to 368 cfs by July...
Shell's Boyd said the amount of water that shale development will need -- 1.5 to 3 barrels of water for every barrel of shale oil, according to a roundtable study -- is being overstated...
The water-use estimates are based on using coal-fired power plants to provide the energy that shale-oil operations will need and rough guesses on the water needed for converting rock to oil. "Granted, part of the problem is the industry really hasn't come out with good estimates," Boyd said. The industry is aiming to be more efficient than forecast by the current estimates, Boyd said. Still, Shell's pursuit of Yampa water rights underscores the growing competition in the state for water.
More coverage from Gary Harmon writing for the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. From the article:
Shell Oil has filed for an industrial water right on the Yampa River for use in development of oil shale, should the company decide to move forward with the idea...
Shell's filing seeks 375 cubic feet per second from the Yampa to fill a 45,000-acre-foot reservoir in Moffat County in an area known as Cedar Springs Draw, said Tracy Boyd, communications and sustainability manager for the Shell Mahogany Research Project. The company will need to divert only spring runoff water to fill the reservoir, Boyd said. The filing is intended to increase the diversity of water rights the company owns for the eventual development of oil shale, Boyd said. The company is working to reduce the amount of water it will use if it proceeds with development and will "apply best water-management practices to treatment, storage and reuse," he said...
Once the filing is published, interested parties can file statements of opposition to the water right, even though they might not necessarily oppose it. Among them will be the Colorado River Water Conservation District, which will enter the case as an opposer, but not an opponent, spokesman Chris Treese said. "We have told Shell we want to be working with them" on the proposal for the reservoir to accommodate municipal, environmental, recreational and other uses, as well as Shell's planned industrial use.
There is the possibility of competition for the water from the Northern Water Conservancy District, based in Berthoud, which has floated the idea of diverting Yampa River water to the Front Range. A Colorado man, Aaron Million, also is seeking to divert water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir to the Front Range, claiming that water in the river is subject to use by Colorado under the compact that governs the Colorado River and its tributaries. A budding oil shale industry has just as much right to the Yampa River's unallocated flows as anyone else, Treese said.
The reservoir would be a couple miles long and about one-third of a mile wide at the widest point, near a dam in Cedar Springs Draw, Boyd said. Water would be pumped out of the Yampa and into the reservoir, he said. Runoff could fill the reservoir in about two months, he said. Shell has yet to decide how much water it will need for oil shale development, and Boyd emphasized the company has yet to decide to seek commercial production. Company officials have said that decision is years away. The industrial right Shell is seeking is among the largest of the water rights the company has accumulated over decades, Boyd said.
Update: More coverage from the Steamboat Pilot & Today:
Shell Frontier Oil & Gas Inc. has filed for surface water and water storage rights on the Yampa River, from two diversion points west of Maybell in Moffat County.
Erin Light, local water division engineer for the state Department of Natural Resources, confirmed Wednesday that Shell filed an application at the Routt County Justice Center on Dec. 30, 2008. The application requests a surface, or direct-flow, allocation of 375 cubic feet per second, or cf/s. In late June of 2008, during peak runoff, the Yampa flowed through downtown Steamboat Springs at about 2,000 cf/s.
Shell's request is a conditional water right, meaning if decreed the water will not be used immediately but will be available for Shell in the future. Shell is requesting to pull the water from two diversion points that are west, or downstream, of Maybell in Moffat County -- but upstream of the Yampa's confluence with the Little Snake River, Light said.
Shell's application says the water would be used "for industrial and mining purposes, including but not limited to drilling activities ... power generation ... and other activities in connection with the mining and production of oil and other products from oil shale."
The application also requests a water storage right to construct and fill the Cedar Springs Draw Reservoir in the same Moffat County area, off a tributary of the Yampa, using water from the requested direct-flow allocation. The reservoir would hold 45,000 acre-feet of water.
More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
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