U-Pb Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) isotopic data were collected for igneous and hydrothermal monazite from a carbonatite dike and hydrothermally altered pegmatite dike, respectively, to determine the age of carbonatite emplacement and rare earth element (REE) mineralization in the Wet Mountains, Colorado. Fifty analyses from three monazite grains from each sample yielded reliable 206Pb/238U data. Sample locations were recording using a handheld Global Positioning System.

The major objective of this study of community impacts was to provide decision-makers the necessary information on which to base planning in order to mitigate the potentially great impacts of an oil shale industry. As study of impacts, it deals more with the hardware requirements of communities—schools, housing, sewers, land use, water—than the people impacts. It provides valuable regional timetables and quantification of the necessary growth hardware. As such, this report should be invaluable to the region in planning. The objectives of the Environmental Inventory Analysis and Impact Study were (1) to examine a number of the more sensitive components of the ecosystem and to establish baselines from which changes in the environment due to oil shale development could be evaluated and (2) to evaluate the effects of a series of alternatives and the long-range consequences for all interrelated aspects of physical and human environments.

Based on currently used revenue sources, public revenues are likely to be insufficient in the oil shale region for the first five to eight years after development is initiated. The basic problem is timing and distribution of tax revenues to support new development when and where needed. This problem primarily affects cities, towns, and school districts. The basic purpose of this study is to review alternative revenue sources for local governments and potential techniques for handling revenue timing and distribution problems created by rapid population growth. The discussion of the oil shale industry and what is likely to happen or not to happen is under constant speculation and revision. Information and projections contained in this report are furnished to provide a context for problem solving by local governments in the oil shale region.

This report was prepared at the request of Thomas W. Ten Eyck, Director of Natural Resources of the State of Colorado, by a subcommittee of Governor John A. Love's Oil Shale Advisory Committee, known as the "Special Committee on Economics of Environmental Protection" (SCEEP). It examines the impact of commercial oil shale operations on the natural resources of the Piceance Creek Basin and the related socio-economic consequences to determine whether or not a federal leasing program can be initiated with adequate environmental safeguards.

Over the past two years, both the hydrogen and carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) industries have gained momentum in the US. Project development in these industries has been rapidly accelerating with the growing financial incentives from policymakers for the commercial deployment of these projects. The signing of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, in November of 2021 marked the US Department of Energy's largest single investment in carbon management, along with significant investments funding clean hydrogen development.

The African Copper belt is a major supplier of key minerals such as copper, nickel, and cobalt to the world economy. Extracting and transporting these minerals to market will be essential to the success of the energy transition as demand for solar and wind energy, and battery metals soar exponentially over the next three decades. In contrast, the dismal state of road infrastructure for transporting the minerals from mine to port creates a major impediment to the commercial competitiveness of miners in the region and threatens economic rents accruable to host countries and communities. This commentary describes a new paradigm that could radically transform the design of solutions to ease logistics problems in the region.

Ground water aquifers can be used as reservoirs to provide increased water storage capacity in Colorado through an intentional, engineered water recharge process to aquifers called "artificial recharge." CGS has completed an assessment of the current and potential use of artificial recharge in our state. The report widely addresses several pertinent aspects of artificial recharge including the reasons for using the technique; the current methods or technologies used; where artificial recharge is being done in Colorado, the US and internationally; types of aquifers that can be used for artificial recharge and which Colorado aquifers are best suited for water storage. An inventory of artificial recharge projects within Colorado identified 19 active operations as of 2004. A weighted ranking system was established to evaluate the key physical properties of the state's sixteen highest-potential unconsolidated aquifers and 29 highest-potential consolidated aquifers. The evaluation of the available storage capacity in Colorado's highest-potential aquifers was guided by the desire to find opportunities to develop large-scale artificial recharge projects, i.e., defined as having storage capacity in excess of 100,000 acre-feet. Thirteen of the sixteen primary unconsolidated rock aquifers have sufficient storage capacity to accommodate a large-scale project. In aggregate, the lower South Platte River alluvium and the San Luis Valley alluvium have the capacity to store in excess of one million acre-feet. All but two of the 26 primary consolidated rock aquifers also have sufficient storage capacity. Because of their large areal extent and head freeboard, the majority of these aquifers can store millions of acre-feet of water.

This study was a cooperative investigation conducted by the CGS and funded by a U.S. Geological Survey Grant on the Study of Environmental Impact of Energy Resource Development in the Denver Basin, Colorado. It was presented at the 5th Governor's Conference on Environmental Geology held in Grand Junction from October 9-12, 1979. As technology advances and the economy changes, new mining methods are researched and developed by industry and the Federal government. Planners may encounter situations where industry wishes to utilize a new, unfamiliar mining technique to recover a mineral resource. Many of these methods offer considerable socio-economic and environmental advantages over conventional mining and milling techniques. Other of these methods, however, may result in significant impacts that concern planners. This paper describes only one of these methods, in situ solution mining, which is a relatively old technique that recently has been successfully used to extract uranium. This report presents the mining and processing techniques, wastes and effluents, waste disposal and control, monitoring programs, environmental effects of accidents, and restoration.

The problem of subsidence resulting from the undermining of the surface has received a great deal of study over the past 100 years. Much of this work has been done in Europe where industry, population density, and coal mining tended to grow and develop in the same areas. Damage to surface structures in highly urbanized areas such as the Ruhr and the English Midlands led to intensive investigations as to how to predict where and when subsidence would occur and how to prevent or minimize such subsidence. Until recently most of the significant research on surface subsidence was done abroad and has been published in journals which are not easily obtainable or are in a language other than English. In Europe, most underground coal mining is done by methods different than those commonly used in the Boulder-Weld coalfield. For this reason, one must be cautious in applying European principles of subsidence prediction to the Boulder-Weld coalfield where the layout and condition of the mines are quite different. In the last decade, land development has encroached on the undermined area of the Boulder-Weld coalfield, and the importance of subsidence has been recognized. This study is directed primarily toward the problems of land-use in those undermined areas where subsidence has occurred in the past and may occur in the future. Absolute predictability of the amount and area of subsidence in the Boulder-Weld coalfield is not possible with records now available. In Europe land-use plans have evolved to take subsidence into account, and detailed records have been maintained over long periods of time. It is unfortunate that the level of record-keeping in the Boulder-Weld coalfield has not been geared to land-use needs, because the present lack of data severely limits the accuracy of subsidence prediction. Within the limitations imposed by the adequacy of mine data, this study is intended to bring together a body of information that will be useful to planners and geologists involved in bringing the land to its optimum use.

Engineering and environmental geology of the Windsor study area, covering eight 7.5-minute quadrangles in Larimer and Weld counties. Included are the cities of Fort Collins, Loveland, Greeley, and Windsor. Model geologic baseline-data study for a rapidly urbanizing area. 11 plates (1:48,000 and 1:96,000). Information included on plates: a) Bedrock geology; b) shallow surficial materials; c) slope analysis; d) drainage basins and areas of past flooding; e) existing land use; f) sand and gravel resources; g) groundwater availability; h) water quality and sources of potential pollution; i) bedrock surface topography of valley-fill areas; j) solid waste disposal suitability; k) energy and mineral resources (excluding sand and gravel).