Wyoming Framework Water Plan - Living Rivers Home Page

6.0 PROJECTIONS
providing the infrastructure needed to transport a consistent volume of water to a site for cooling purposes
could prove to be a daunting challenge. Nevertheless, the potential use of CBM water for industrial
purposes remains an interesting possibility.
The Green River and the Wind/Bighorn River Basins are just entering the CBM production arena.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has projected that employment in this sector in the Great Divide
Basin of the Green River Basin could approach 3,300 jobs during the planning period.
Natural gas is produced in all but three counties in Wyoming. Natural gas production is reported
in thousands of MCF (MCF is thousand cubic feet). In 2000, Wyoming produced 1,454,793 thousand
MCF of natural gas. Natural gas production increased to 1,927,837 thousand MCF in 2004 (Equality
State Almanac). Experts anticipate that natural gas production across the state will continue to increase as
it has over the past 20 years. However, some of the minor natural gas producing counties will see
declines in production over the 30-year planning period.
6.4.5 Coal Conversion Facilities
Several companies have studied the possibility of building coal conversion facilities in Campbell
County over the past 20 years. There appear to be two rationales for such facilities. One rationale is the
fact that coal contains a high percentage of water by weight, meaning that eliminating or reducing the
water content of coal prior to shipment could result in substantial savings in transportation costs to out-of
-state utilities and other users. The second rationale is that the vast coal reserves of the region could be
used to produce synthetic versions of fuels such as gasoline if petroleum prices were to increase or
government programs were in place to stimulate domestic energy production.
Since 1980, three coal conversion facilities have been planned for Northeast Wyoming and have
been issued construction permits by the Wyoming Industrial Siting Administration, although none have
been built to date. The Platte River Basin also has potential for a coal conversion plant.
For the low growth scenario, it was assumed that the market forces that have prevented the
construction of such facilities in the past would continue throughout the 30-year planning period.
For the moderate growth scenario, it was assumed that two such facilities would become
operational in the Northeast Wyoming River Basin, one to convert coal to solid fuels and one to convert
coal to liquid fuels. The water requirements of the two plants are 2,200 acre-feet annually. This demand
would probably be met from groundwater sources.
The high growth scenario assumes that in addition to the coal conversion facilities described
above, one coal-to-gasoline plant will become operational in Northeast Wyoming over the next 30 years.
This plant would have an annual consumptive water use requirement of approximately 5,000 acre-feet,
bringing total Northeast Wyoming water use for the high growth scenario to 7,200 acre-feet annually.
This requirement would most likely be met from groundwater sources. In the Platte River Basin, a coalto-diesel
fuel plant would be constructed over the next 30 years. The plant would also generate electrical
power. Annual water consumption would be 15,000 acre-feet (as shown in Table 6-9).
6.4.6 Soda Ash Production
Soda ash is produced only in the Green River Basin planning area. One of the major uses of soda
ash is in the production of glass. The Green River Basin is the site of five industrial facilities that convert
trona to soda ash. As a group, these five facilities produced approximately 11.7 million tons of soda ash
in 1999 and consumptively used about 17,900 acre-feet of water from the Green River. Not all of this
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