Site evaluation for US Bureau of Mines experimental oil-shale mine, Piceance Creek Basin, Rio Blanco County, Colorado
The US Geological Survey is cooperating with the US Bureau of Mines in the selection of a site for a shaft and experimental mine to be constructed in the Piceance Creek basin, Rio Blanco County, Colorado. The Piceance Creek basin, an asymmetric, northwest-trending large structural downwarp, is located approximately 40 km (25 mi) west of the town of Meeker in Rio Blanco County, Colorado. The oil-shale, dawsonite, nahcolite, and halite deposits of the Piceance Creek basin occur in the lacustrine Green River Formation of Eocene age. In the basin the Green River Formation comprises three members. In ascending order, they are the Douglas Creek, the Garden Gulch, and the Parachute Creek Members. Four sites are presented for consideration and evaluated on geology and hydrology with respect to shale-oil economics. Evaluated criteria include: (1) stratigraphy, (2) size of site, (3) oil-shale yield, (4) representative quantities of the saline minerals dawsonite and nahcolite, which must be present with a minimum amount of halite, (5) thickness of a leached saline zone, (6) geologic structure, (7) engineering characteristics or rock, (8) representative surface and ground-water conditions, with emphasis on waste disposal and dewatering, and (9) environmental considerations. Serious construction and support problems are anticipated in sinking a deep shaft in the Piceance Creek basin. The two major concerns will be dealing with incompetent rock and large inflow of saline ground water, particularly in the leached zone. Engineering support problems will include stabilizing and hardening the rock from which a certain amount of ground water has been removed. The relative suitability of the four potential oil-shale experimental shaft sites in the Piceance Creek basin has been considered on the basis of all available geologic, hydrologic, and engineering data; site 2 is preferred to sites 1, 3, and 4.
- Research Organization:
- Geological Survey, Denver, CO (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 6073941
- Report Number(s):
- USGS-OFR-78-390; ON: DE83902149
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
OIL SHALE MINING
ECONOMICS
SITE SELECTION
COLORADO
CONSTRUCTION
DAWSONITE
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
GEOLOGY
GREEN RIVER FORMATION
GROUND WATER
HYDROLOGY
NAHCOLITE
OIL YIELDS
PICEANCE CREEK BASIN
ROCK MECHANICS
STRATIGRAPHY
SURFACE WATERS
WASTE DISPOSAL
WATER REMOVAL
ALKALI METAL COMPOUNDS
ALUMINIUM COMPOUNDS
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CARBONATE MINERALS
CARBONATES
FEDERAL REGION VIII
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROXIDES
MANAGEMENT
MECHANICS
MINERALS
MINING
NORTH AMERICA
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
REMOVAL
SODIUM CARBONATES
SODIUM COMPOUNDS
USA
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WATER
YIELDS
040200* - Oil Shales & Tar Sands- Reserves
Geology
& Exploration
040300 - Oil Shales & Tar Sands- Drilling
Fracturing & Mining