"Development of oil shale is a groundwater nightmare," said Thompson, a chemist. "Oil shale serves as the floor for the aquifer. When you heat up the aquifer, it dissolves nasty stuff like fluoride and arsenic and selenium and cyanide . . . the list goes on."
For now, with the support of Congress and the Bush administration, oil companies appear to have the upper hand.
That might change with President-elect Barack Obama's selection this month of Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar, a former water lawyer, to head the Department of Interior.
Salazar, a Democrat, has criticized the breakneck speed at which oil shale efforts are advancing.
"Over and over again the administration has admitted that it has no idea how much of Colorado's water supply would be required to develop oil shale on a commercial scale, no idea where the power would come from and no idea whether the technology is even viable," Salazar said last month.
But as long as the demand for fuel remains high, the dream of squeezing oil from rock will probably persist.
"Oil shale is the last refuge of the hydrocarbon pioneers," Thompson said. "It's always been that last refuge because it's such a poor excuse for a fuel. Here's a commodity that's been developing for 100 years, and we still don't know anything about it."
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julie.cart@latimes.com
