Most of this shale is in the Southwest. It takes alot of water to steam the rock to free the oil trapped there. Currently the Southwest is drier than a bond martini. So obviously things are not as cut and dried as they seem.
The largest one is in Colorado, I believe. Which still doesn’t solve the extraction problems. The biggest problem with the newer extraction techniques is the amount of electricity needed and the length of time it takes to get the oil heat up and perc out of the rock where it’s accessible. And of course, there are the environmental impact studies.
That is not the only method.
Seebach: Shell's ingenious approach to oil shale is pretty slick
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/news_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_86_4051709,00.html
RAYTHEON TECHNOLOGY MAY UNLOCK ENORMOUS OIL SHALE RESERVE
http://www.raytheon.com/newsroom/feature/oil_shale06/
The Unocal commercial demonstration plant project in the Colorado Piceance Creek Basin actually produced more water than it consumed, as former Paraho Corporation head Larry Lukens found from talking with Unocal’s engineers. Colorado oil shale contains, on average, 2-5% by weight of water. That water is liberated from the rock during the ‘retorting’ process. Unocal actually had to construct evaporation ponds to get rid of all the excess water generated.http://www.newmediajournal.us/guest/j_moseley/2008/06092008.htm
Using the water assumes it cannot be recaptured and recycled by any means, that the water, converted to steam, is merely allowed to blow away in the wind.
What are the sources of water available there? Some would be fossil water, or water of crystalization, that is already present in the immediate environment. Another would be recapture of the water vapor from the fuel used in the process of heating the steam needed for this extraction process.
A different approach may be to insert RF-generation units into the body of oil shale, in a pattern that focuses the microwaves inward to a certain point, and concentrating the energy there until the heat reaches the critical point.(which could easily exceed the 600º F. or so necessary to cause the kerogen to volatilize and separate from the strata in which it is embedded). Everybody has seen how a microwave works, same principle applied on a larger scale.
Up from the ground comes a’bubblin’ crude - oil, that is, black gold, Texas tea.
There will be some pretty hot rocks for a while, though. The soil will be THOROUGHLY sterilized. For remediation, it may be necessary to re-introduce the native flora and microbiota. But not until there is sufficient water also re-introduced to assure their regrowth. The fauna returns on its own.
Actually, a bit more than half is in the North Dakota/Montana shale formation, which is hardly as dry as the Southwest (and Wyoming isn't, as another poster mentioned, in the Southwest).
Further, there are (again, as others mentioned above) other methods of extraction that don't use anywhere near as much water. Oh, and BTW, if fresh water is a problem, just build a damned pipeline from the Great Lakes to where the oil is. It can be built on the same land as the pipeline bringing oil to Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, etc. (one pipe brings water one way, the pipe 10 feet away brings oil the other way). If a pipeline can be built across Alaska, so can one be built across the Great Plains, and a good deal more cheaply.
It takes alot of water to steam the rock to free the oil trapped there.”
NE: No, actually, the rock contains water itself, 2-5% by weight. So when you heat the rock, you release water. The shale is actually a net source of water.