The Upper Colorado River Basin contains appreciable amounts of undeveloped coal, oil shale, and uranium resources, which are important in the national energy demand system. A mathematical model which simulates the salt and water exchange phase of potential fuel conversions has been developed based on a subbasin analysis identifying available mineral and water resources. Potential energy developments are evaluated with respect to the resulting impacts upon both the quantity and salinity of the waters in the Colorado River. Model solutions are generated by use of a multilevel minimum cost linear programming algorithm, minimum cost referring to the cost of developing predetemined levels of energy output. Level one in the model analysis [...]
