Reid Gardner Generating Station

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This page was last updated on March 17, 2025.

Overview

Reid Gardner Generating Station at Moapa, Nevada, was completed in 1965. Permanent shut down of Units 1, 2 and 3 occurred on December 31, 2014 and March 11, 2017 for Unit 4. Decommissioning and demolition of all four units of the Station was completed in July 2020. Coal deliveries from Utah ended in 2014.

Reid Gardner, the man, was president of Southern Nevada Power Company from 1954 until his death in May 1963 at age 65.

By mid 1955, Southern Nevada Power had its Edward Clark Plant under construction in Whitney, in southeastern Las Vegas, just north of Henderson. A second plant was being added to the Whitney site, with construction started in January 1956. The new Whitney plant, when completed in July 1957, with its 60MW capacity, more than doubled the Whitney plant's capacity. Both units of the Clark plant were fueled by natural gas.

The steam plant at Moapa was built to provide Southern Nevada Power with an alternative and reliable power source to the hydroelectric power it was receiving from Hoover and Davis dams on the Colorado River. The price and availability of the hydroelectric power was fluctuating as the level of the water behind the dams fluctuated. To cover the reduction in hydroelectric power (12 per cent in late 1954; 35 per cent in mid 1955), the power company was forced to buy expensive power from steam plants outside of the area. Las Vegas, as the utility's biggest customer, continued to grow beyond the utility's ability to provide power from its supply of hydroelectric sources, and from natural gas burning plants in the Las Vegas suburb of Whitney.

Planning began for a coal-fired power plant, ideally located adjacent to a source of coal. The initial location was the Kaiparowits field in southern Utah, but Nevada Power was unable to find a source of water at that location. Exploration began at the Alton coal field, also in southern Utah, but a reliable water source was again a problem. A location on the Muddy River at Moapa, Nevada was soon identified and work began to develop the site as the final location for Nevada Power's new steam power generating plant.

The location in Moapa for the plant provided a water source, and coal transportation would be provided by the Union Pacific mainline between Salt Lake City and Las Vegas that passed within one-half mile of the proposed plant site on the Muddy River. With the problems for reliable transportation, and a reliable water source solved, a reliable source for coal was needed. A reliable and abundant source for coal was needed and Nevada Power contracted for the exploration of existing and potential coal mines in Carbon and Emery counties.

Although planning most assuredly started much earlier, the steam power generating plant at Moapa was first mentioned in online newspapers in May 1963, and the plant went into operation in late October 1965. At the time it was the largest steam generating plant in Nevada.

(The actual start of construction was not mentioned in online newspapers. But the bidding and awarding of the coal contract was heavily covered, without any mention of when deliveries were to start.)

Coal Contract

May 19, 1963
"About mid-May the Nevada Power Co. will be seeking bids for some 1,000 tons of coal daily. This amount, added to the 2,000 tons now being used, to stoke a new 100-megawatt steam-electric unit at Moapa, some 50 miles north of Las Vegas. The coal, expected to come from the Carbon and Emery counties in Utah, will all be purchased from a single supplier." (Reno Gazette-Journal, May 19, 1963)

May 31, 1963
"Nevada Power is also asking Utah coal operators to have bids in by June 12 on the sale of 500,000 to 600,00 tons of coal yearly for its new plant at Moapa. The contracts will run for 10 years." (Reno Gazette-Journal, May 31, 1963)

June 1963
Nevada Power was about to award a contract to supply its new Moapa power plant with coal from Utah. The Peabody Coal company was one of the prospective bidders, but was still searching for a source of coal in Utah. The coal needed to be Utah because the boilers had been designed to burn a particular mix of BTUs, low ash, and low sulphur unique to Utah coal. There were five bidders, offering coal from seven properties, but Nevada Power wanted the coal to come from just one company and one mine. (Salt Lake Tribune, June 13, 1963)

October 30, 1963
"Nevada Power has planned to have its first unit of the steam electric plant at Moapa operative by the spring of 1965. Construction would start within the next 90 to 120 days. The firm is designing its plant to burn coal available from either Carbon or Emery counties. Among others who bid on the Moapa contract are Independent Coal & Coke Co., Heiner Coal Co., Knight-Ideal Coal Co., Carbon Fuel Co., United States Fuel Co. (an affiliate of United States Smelting Refining A Mining Co.) and Kemmerer Coal Co." (Salt Lake Tribune, October 30, 1963)

November 7, 1963
When the Utah-Wyoming Coal Operators Association complained to the U. S. Justice Department in November 1963 that Nevada Power was giving Peabody Coal preferential treatment in the bidding process, Nevada Power responded that they had received nine bids in their competitive process, adding that the complaint "sounds like sour grapes." (Ogden Standard Examiner, November 7, 1963; Helper Journal, November 14, 1963)

February 7, 1964
"Peabody Goal Co., St. Louis, Mo., has won that long-term from Nevada Power Co. to supply coal from Carbon and Emery counties, Utah, for a steam electric plant complex under construction at Moapa, Nev., it was reported Friday [February 7th]." (Salt Lake Tribune, February 7, 1964)

February 13, 1964
Peabody Coal won a contract to supply coal to Nevada Power's new Reid Gardner power plant at Moapa, Nevada. The coal was to come from the Wilberg mine of the Castle Valley Mining company and would be hauled by truck from the mine and transferred to rail cars for the trip to Nevada. The boilers of the Moapa power plant had been designed to burn coal unique to Carbon and Emery counties in Utah. (Sun Advocate, February 13, 1964)

In 1964, Peabody Coal, the largest coal producer in the nation at that time, came to Utah and began buying coal from Carbon County mines and shipping it by rail to the Nevada Power Company's new power plant at Moapa, Nevada. This was to fulfill the specifics of the contract that the coal being furnished must come from Utah mines. Among the mines furnishing coal to Peabody was the newly opened Wilberg and Deer Creek mines in Emery County, and from U. S. Fuel at Hiawatha, and from mines in Spring Canyon. The coal from the Emery County mines was trucked to the loading station at Mohrland on Utah Railway.

October 2, 1969
"A major portion of Carbon Fuel's present production goes to the steam powered generating units of Nevada Power at Moapa. Nev." (Sun Advocate, October 2, 1969)

(The coal was coming from the company's mine in Hardscrabble Canyon and was trucked down to a loading station adjacent to the Utah Railway shop at Martin. The time period for this suggests that Carbon Fuel was one of the contract sources for Peabody Coal.)

September 1, 1976
"Valley Camp Coal Co. started work on a second mine in Carbon County, expected to increase the company's annual production to about 1.5 million tons per year. Unit train shipments of coal will be made from its Carbon County properties to Nevada Power Co.'s electric generating plant at Moapa, Nev. The schedule calls for shipment of 40 to 50 carloads each week." (Deseret News, September 1, 1976)

December 9, 1976
"Under the new contract with Nevada Power, U.S Fuel will deliver between six and eight million tons of coal to the new Reid Gardner generating station at Moapa, Nevada between Jan. 1, 1977 and Dec. 31, 1994. Revenues from the sale of that coal could amount to more than million at present prices. The new contract replaces U.S. Fuel's previous commitment to provide 400,000 tons of coal a year to the Moapa station through July 1, 1980." (Sun Advocate, December 9, 1976)

December 16, 1976
The following comes from the December 16, 1976 issue of the Kellogg (Idaho) Evening News newspaper.

U S. Fuel Co., a unit of UV Industries Inc., said it arranged to supply up to 8.1 million tons of low-sulphur coal from the Hiawatha Mine in Carbon County, Utah, to Nevada Power Co. over a 17-year period.

U S Fuel said the contract, which calls for supplies of between 6.35 million and 8.1 million tons of coal from Jan. 1. 1977, to Dec. 31, 1994, is valued at about $200 million. The agreement provides for a fixed price with subsequent adjustments on a formula basis for changes in the cost of labor and materials and for inflation and "other factors," U S. Fuel said.

Nevada Power will use the coal in its new Reid Gardner generating station near Moapa, Nev.

U.S. Fuel also said it is seeking Interior Department approval for a new coal mine on other properties in Carbon and Emery counties in Utah. Recoverable reserves in the new area, which adjoins the Hiawatha Mine, are estimated at 55 million tons, including 38 million tons on land owned or leased by U.S. Fuel and 17 million tons on land held by another company.

According to a mining plan filed with the Interior Department, however, Nevada Power has an option to acquire both privately held and federal leases in Emery County currently controlled by Peabody Coal Co. that are adjacent to U.S. Fuel properties there.

Atlas Dirty Devil

The Atlas Dirty Devil coal mine, first proposed in November 1977, was a failed attempt of developing coal resources specifically for shipment to Nevada Power's steam power plant at Moapa. The mine was to be a strip mine near Factory Butte, about 25 miles northwest of Hanksville and about 80 miles southwest of Green River, Utah. The coal was to be mined and trucked 72 miles to a new siding on D&RGW, five miles west of Green River, where a small flood loader was built to load the coal into rail cars. A coal washing plant was completed at the mine, with the test runs begun in April 1978. The first trainload of 70 110-ton capacity rail cars was loaded on November 18, 1878. By March 1979, the mine was producing 2,000 tons per day, and the coal washing plant near the mine was cleaning 1,400 tons per day. Trucks were hauling coal around the clock, moving 1,200 tons per day. Every seven days, a train of 70 cars was being shipped to Nevada.

The mine was shut down in April 1979 "due to management problems" and all 50 employees laid off. In June 1979 the partnership between the Dirty Devil Mining Corporation, and its partner Atlas Resources began federal bankruptcy proceedings, owing $11 million to 20 different creditors, the largest was $8.5 million to a New York City bank. At that time it was reported that the mine had been shut down because Nevada Power had found that the coal was not satisfactory for use in its Moapa steam power generating plant. The unit train railroad loader was located on 80 acres west of Green River, in Section 11, T21S, R15E. The mine itself was northwest of Hanksville and was all within Section 2 of T27S, R9E.

Throughout the greatest portion of its service life from 1965 to 2014, the Reid Gardner Station received the largest percentage of its coal from Utah mines. At the start of the operations 100 per cent came from Utah, through to the end of operations, when Utah coal amounted to two-thirds of the coal burned. The annual Utah Coal Report published by the State of Utah's Division of Energy, reported that the average annual shipment was 1.5 million tons, with the actual totals varying between 1.2 and 1.8 million tons. Beginning in the mid-1990s, 10 to 15 per cent came from Colorado mines, and beginning in 2009, coal from Wyoming was also received. The totals varied as the station's coal stockpile varied according to the coal being burned, which in-turn varied depending on the electricity being generated to supply customer needs.

The coal from Utah included coal from Arco Coal's Swisher Gordon Creek mines, until they were closed in 1990. Coal also came from Arco Coal's Trail Mountain mine (purchased by Arco in 1987), until that mine was sold to Utah Power & Light in 1992. Then in 1993 to 1997 coal began coming Arco's West Elk mine in Colorado. From 1998 on, the coal coming from Utah came from several of the larger mines on a competitive bidding basis.

The coal arriving at the Reid Gardner Station came in trains operated by Union Pacific from its yard in Provo, Utah. The trains arrived at Provo from locations on Utah Railway and on D&RGW. In 1988 D&RGW merged with Southern Pacific, and in 1996 SP merged with Union Pacific. This meant that after 1996, the coal traveled over UP rails the entire distance.

As a side note, the coal trains arriving at the Reid Gardner Station at Moapa, Nevada, were switched by Nevada Power's own locomotive, a 100-ton GE center cab built in December 1964.

(Sources include online newspapers and various internet searches)

Other Sources

Wikipedia

Wikipedia Article about the Reid Gardner Generating Station

State of Nevada

Reid Gardner Generating Station Environmental Cleanup

Mark Hemphill, 1994

"Steam coal began moving down the LA&SL in 1965 when Nevada Power Co. started up Unit 1 at its Reid Gardner Plant at Moapa. Unit 2 followed in 1968, Unit 3 in 1976, and Unit 4 in 1983. This 580-Mw plant bums 2.1-million tons per year at full capacity, or 250 84-car unit trains a year. At first this coal came from U.S . Fuel's King Mines at Hiawatha. In the mid-1970s Swisher Coal Co. (Beaver Creek Coal Co. after 1979), whose three mines load at Acco, and Plateau Mining Co., loading at Wattis, began shipping to Moapa. U.S. Fuel ceased operations at Hiawatha in 1991. All other Nevada power plants use natural gas except Valmy and Mohave." (Mark Hemphill, 1994)

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