There were two principal research objectives for this project. The first objective was to characterize organic material in Black Trona Water with an emphasis on colloids and organic acids. The second objective was to determine the utility of Black Trona Water as a solvent for extracting fossil fuels from US Tar Sands. Spectroscopic studies, molecular weights and shapes of polymeric acids and behavior as a polysoap were determined. Experiments indicate that trona water is preferable to Black Trona Water as an extraction agent for tar sands. The trona water is fairly efficient at stripping bitumen from the sand with gentle heating. In trona water, the displaced bitumen is readily collected on a Teflon surface (i.e., a non-water-wetted surface) with little material dissolving in the water. In contrast, the polysoap in Black Trona Water appears to take up displaced bitumen in a detergent-like process. Separating bitumen from the polysoap would undoubtedly be very difficult. 38 references, 16 figures, 2 tables.