Flushing Coal to Market

Most of the coal to fire President Carter's energy program (TIME, May 2) will be shipped by rail. But if other states or Congress pass laws like the one signed by Texas Governor Dolph Briscoe Jr. last week, an increasing amount will be transported by slurry pipelines. Working much like toilets, the pipelines are supposed to "flush" a slurry mixture of water and pulverized coal from mine to market. When the blend gets to its destination, usually an electric utility plant, the coal is separated from the water by filter or centrifuge and used to heat boilers. The water is used to cool the plant.

Briscoe's signature granted the right of eminent domain in Texas to a 1,100-mile slurry pipeline proposed by Houston Natural Gas Corp.--only the second slurry line in the entire country. It would run from coal fields in southern Colorado to an area just outside Houston, crossing rail tracks 28 times. Fearing competition from the $500 million slurry, railroads had refused to give up rights of way. That hurdle was overcome by the new legislation, and the pipeline could be pumping 15 million tons of coal annually to utilities in the Houston area by the 1980s.

The battle is not yet over. The pipeline's developers must now contend with environmentalists, who object to slurries because of the vast amounts of water they would drain away from areas that are already water-short. The Houston Natural Gas line would consume enough water to supply 40,000 people for a year. Company officials counter by saying that no drinkable water will be used. Their intention is to drill for brackish or saline water unfit for human consumption or agriculture.

The first coal slurry pipeline was used in London in 1914. Currently, the only one functioning in the U.S. is the Black Mesa Pipeline, which runs 273 miles from Kayenta, Ariz., to the Mohave Generating Station in southern Nevada. But since pressures are sure to mount on the nation's coal delivery system, four other slurry pipelines are in various planning stages, all in the West or Southwest.

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