Several hundred truckloads per day of spent oil shale could be making their way through Delta as part of a state and federal program to move the material to a location north of town in the ‘dobies.

The disposal operation, if it gets final approval as expected, will add a high volume of truck traffic “for a short period of time” through Delta.

An original haul route plan for taking trucks along Highway 50 and H38 Road to Doughspoon Road was scrapped in a meeting with haulers last week. A final decision on the haul route has not been made. But a more likely scenario now is for loaded trucks to take Highway 50 to Highway 92, then to Highway 65. From there the loads would travel west on Fairview Road to Trap Club Road, then to Doughspoon Road.

Empty trucks would return via Trap Club Road and I Road to 1550 Road, then south back to Highway 50.

The materials include spent oil shale deposits that remain on site in the Rulison and Anvil Points areas, left over from the “early days” of oils shale development, explained Bruce Bertram, county designee for oil and gas issues. There are an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 cubic yards of the material to be moved.

“These have been well-tested and assayed by the federal government which is doing the (removal) work on this project,” Bertram said.

During a discussion of the project at the County Commissioners’ Nov. 16 regular meeting, the BoCC wanted to make sure that the City of Delta is involved in any planning that would bring additional, heavy truck traffic through town, even if for only a short time. The Town of Orchard City is also being consulted.

According to the presentation made to the commissioners, the material would be headed for an existing, privately owned waste treatment facility on Doughspoon Road. The CB Industries facility currently is a disposal site for grease trap waste, contaminated soils, and local residents’ septage (the semi-solid material pumped from septic tanks) which is composted By CB Industries into a commercial grade amendment material for various landscaping applications.

The facility’s original permit has been expanded since it opened in 2004 to include some dead animal disposal and limited shipments of septage from outside of Delta County.

According to Bertram, because of changes already made to CB Industries’ original operation plan to allow disposal of those additional materials, the county and state officials will want the facility’s plan completely rewritten as a condition granting a waiver to receive the spent shale deposits. When that new plan is completed, the BoCC will receive copies for public review

In a separate item, Bertram reported that state environmental officials are starting to require that “background levels” of naturally occurring salts, heavy metals and other minerals in soils at disposal areas be established in order to better monitor the effectiveness of on-site containment. Facilities like Adobe Buttes Landfill and CB Industries will have soil samples taken in order to begin that documentation process.

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