Fossil Foolishness:
Oil Shale and Tar Sands Would Stress Utah's Already Tight Water Supply
Commercial development of tar sands and oil shale would require huge quantities of water in the country’s second most arid state. Producing these fuels would siphon water from Utah’s lakes, rivers, streams, and aquifers at a time when the West’s water supplies are tightening and competition for Utah’s remaining allocations are causing cities such as St. George to plan a 130-mile water pipeline from Lake Powell to meet growing demands. Pending proposals for massive diversions from Flaming Gorge Reservoir on the Upper Green River to Colorado’s Front Range introduce additional uncertainty. 
Water quality would be adversely affected by commercial development. Water used in tar sands and oil shale production would contain contaminants that would degrade the quality of Utah’s water, raising costs for water treatment and placing burdens on downstream uses.
In the Uintah Basin, oil shale and tar sands, in all likelihood, would be mined and retorted. Using this technology, there are at least six categories of water use, each with a different level of uncertainty about the amount of water associated with it:
Mining: Mining operations require water for dust abatement and for the building of roads, pads, and other infrastructure.
Processing: Processing requires water to cool and reclaim spent shale, and for upgrading raw shale oil, among other needs.
Energy production: Heating oil shale and tar sands into liquid requires a lot of energy. Electricity would need to be produced, which in turn requires water.
Workforce: Any oil shale and tar sands industry would require water to support its workers and underlying businesses.
Refining: Currently, there are not enough refineries in the region to support oil shale refining, which is both energy- and water-intensive. Water is also needed for this part of the process.
Reclamation: Very little information exists about how energy companies plan to revegetate the areas affected by development; more water will be required for this stage.
Utah’s remaining Colorado River allocation should not be used for a speculative energy source at the expense of municipal, agricultural, recreational, or ecological purposes – and water should likewise not be diverted from existing uses such as agriculture.