The Colorado River Water Conservation District has the go-ahead to study whether the water needs of oil shale, tar sands and natural gas development in the region will have negative consequences on the area's water supply. But state water managers want cooperation from the energy industry. The Colorado Water Conservation Board approved a request for $300,000 by the Colorado River Basin Roundtable and the Yampa-White-Green River Basins Roundtable for the river district to conduct the study...The river district estimates that oil shale development alone will increase annual water consumption in northwest Colorado by about 150,000 acre-feet for every 1 million barrels of oil that are produced each day, and the region must be able to provide water for an additional 70,000 oil shale workers. Potentially, this is the largest gap between water demand and water supplies in the state...There is concern the oil shale industry has been too protective of information about how much water commercial oil shale development will use.

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