A Field and Laboratory Compaction Study of a Mixture of Retorted and Raw Oil Shale from the Means Project in Montgomery County

The oil shale retorting process will produce large volumes of spent shale and some raw oil shale that cannot he used in the retorting process. Consequently, it is anticipated that on-site disposal embankments will be constructed using these materials A report by Drnevich, et al. (1) has recommended that site-specific compaction studies be done at the start up of a mining and disposal operation. Holtz 12) has reported on a detailed study of the compaction characteristics of a western oil shale that had been retorted by the Paraho vertical retort process. This study was performed to develop background data on compaction characteristics of retorted material when mixed with a small percentage of raw shale that is generated as a result of the crushing process. The test site was located in Montgomery County, Kentucky, and the shales that were used were the Sunbury and Cleveland oil shales obtained in the same county