Piceance Basin, Colorado

Situation: Norwest’s environmental group was hired to collect hydrology, geology, and other environmental resource data in the Piceance Basin of Colorado for a project involving the submission of an application to the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety to mine oil shale.

Solution:  Norwest designed a project to help demonstrate the client’s ability to use their In-Situ Conversion Process (ICP) to economically recover commercial quantities of hydrocarbons from oil shale in an environmentally sensitive manner. The process began by creating a freeze wall containment area, heating the earth inside the freeze wall, removing the oil, and then reclaiming the production area. 

Result:  Norwest met aggressive timelines and supported the project through NEPA to produce a comprehensive package that was well received by the client. Norwest was able to provide interdisciplinary support ranging from identifying promising resource areas to compiling a comprehensive permit application that integrated large volumes of technical information.