Kaiparowits Plateau Coal

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This page was last updated on December 31, 2024.

Overview

(The focus of this page is the interaction of other coal producers in Utah, with the various proposals to develop the resources of the Kaiparowits Plateau.)

"In 1965, the Southern California Edison Company proposed the construction of a 3000 megawatt coal-fired generation plant within the Kaiparowits Plateau. This plant was intended to be fed by large coal deposits in the plateau, which may have yielded up to 4,000,000,000 short tons of fuel. The electricity produced would have gone to the growing populations near Los Angeles, San Diego, and Phoenix. Initially hailed as an economic boon to this isolated area of southern Utah, the proposal met with growing opposition from federal regulatory agencies and from environmental groups, who had only recently experienced the scenic canyons of the Colorado River and its tributaries being inundated by Lake Powell, behind the Glen Canyon Dam. After ten years of dispute and facing rising construction costs, the proposal was abandoned in 1975." (Wikipedia)

In the late 1970s, there was a serious proposal to build a coal-fired power plant in southern Utah, to be fired by coal from the huge reserves in the Kaiparowits Plateau coal field. The electricity was to go to southern California. The proposal included a new Union Pacific branch to bring in construction materials, and to export coal that would not be needed by the power plant.

Beginning in early 1979, Utah Power & Light was proposing a coal-fired power plant that would use coal leases it had been awarded in March 1979. To serve the new power plant and coal mine, Union Pacific's "Project K" was a proposal for a 200-mile rail line from the coal rich Kaiparowits Plateau in southern Utah, to the Union Pacific mainline in southwestern Utah. The proposed route was from the Union Pacific's branch to Cedar City, south into Arizona, then northeast to the Plateau. Estimated cost ranged from $316.7 Million to $349.8 Million and would be the largest project of its type in the U.S. in the past 50 years. The sponsor for the coal field development was Southern Utah Coal Resource Group, a consortium of coal, utility, and transportation companies. To meet the proposed schedule, construction on the railroad portion needed to start early in 1983.

Development of the Kaiparowits resource was being sought for three major reasons: first, in anticipation of coal fired power plants in Southern California, replacing oil and natural gas installations that depend on energy resources that were becoming scarce; second, for possible exports to Japan; and third, to ease pressures on existing Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming resources.

(The February 5, 1979 issue of the Los Angeles Times has an excellent review of the 1979 proposal.)

In April 1979 Utah Power & Light had asked for preferential treatment in is selection of coal leases on the Wasatch Plateau, in exchange for leases it held on the Kaiparowits Plateau in Garfield and Kane counties. The Kaiparowits leases were not going to be developed due to environmental concerns.

Ten years later, between April 1989 and January 1997, after acquiring its first coal leases in the area in 1985, the Tower Division of Andalex Resources was involved in the approval process for its proposed Smoky Hollow coal mine in southern Utah, on the Kaiparowits Plateau. To stop that project, on September 18, 1996, President Clinton designated the surrounding area as the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. But the coal mine proposal predated the designation, so the approval process continued.

The proposed mine was stopped by severely restricting the needed infrastructure in the area, such as roads, electric lines, and other utilities and improvements, not included as part of the actual leased lands. Andalex had not yet completed its environmental impact statement, so the restrictions would be valid and considered as part of the review. After extended negotiations between Andalex and the federal government, in October 1999 the government paid Andalex a $14 million settlement, the amount spent by Andalex during the permit approval process.

Although the massive coal reserves are still there (62 billion tons, 11.4 billion tons recoverable), two things made the proposal wither on the vine. The biggest, and barely mentioned, is that the Powder River Basin coal came on line, making steam coal readily available to midwestern and eastern power plants. The second thing, and the one most often mentioned, is that the fight over the Kaiparowits project was the start of the environmental movement in Utah. Other than the competition from the Powder River Basin, and the environmental concerns, the project was killed by the economics of developing the mine deep in the scenic region of Utah, building a power plant, and building a 150-mile rail line through a politically sensitive region, compared to the wide open plains of northeastern Wyoming.

Any future development was killed forever by the creation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, making only the checkerboard pattern of state-owned school trust lands available for development. It's a sore subject with a lot of people, and almost anyone who has lived in southern Utah for more than 20 years has an opinion on the subject, either pro or con. In comparison, the currect Alton project will always be a small truck mine, but to many people in Panguitch, one coal truck is one truck too many.

1985
Andalex acquired 75 square miles of coal leases in Southern Utah's Kane County, on the southern part of the Kaiparowits plateau, and proposed to open an underground mine in the Smoky Hollow area. The coal was to be trucked from the mine to the coal-fired power plant at Moapa, Nevada. (St. George Daily Spectrum, April 26, 1989)

More Information

Do a Google search on <kaiparowits plateau coal> and on <kaiparowits plateau coal "union pacific">.

A similar search at newspapers.com with a date range of 1960 to 1999 will bring numerous results.

You'll learn more than you wanted to know.

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