Show coal for 2000 years needs under colorado plateau alien allen there thre Is enough coal under the C colorado plateau to supply the entire united states for of the next 2000 years and to s supply power for or the western slope uranium industry for thousands of years according to tom alien allen colorados coal mine inspector at alien 1 en would like to see coal supplied t led power plants serving all of the vast colorado plateau region and he believes the key points for power plants would be at durango laonia or nearby and the book cliffs of the grand valley A report on the synthetic liquid fuel potential of colorado released by the bureau of mines department of the interior on december 14 1951 reveals there are billions of tons of coal in deposits throughout the plateau area in colorado and billions more on the rest of the plateau it would be feasible to mine most of it but some ollie of it is in strata that makes it very difficult and therefore not practical to mine in the green river legion lying in southwestern wyoming and an northwestern colorado an area of about square miles coal deposits are quite general the green river region so called cil by the bureau of mines is separated from the north park field to the east by extensive faulting and uplift and from the uinta re region 0 n on the south by the uplifts ebe extending n southeastwards from the uinta mountains of northeastern utah coal bearing formations of the region are confined to moffat routt ind and northeastern 1110 blanco counties the uinta coal region lies in east ast central utah and west cent central r al colorado ext extending anding eastward from the utah col colorado orado state line for about miles total area underlain by coal bearing formations approximates square miles and occupies portions of delta garfield gunnison moffat pitkin and illo rio blanco counties however only a relatively narrow fringe around the margins of the region has IBS been explored or developed aid said the bureau of mines report A noteworthy member of the geologically younger sediments seri serl ments Is the green river formation which aich contains the oil shale rhale horizon that is being mined and converted to liquid fuel products near the town ot 01 rifle in east central garfield county counts ane report said although not standardized the report relates the principal fields in the uinta region are most frequently identified as the lower white river danforth hills grand hogback west elk mountains grand mesa and book cliff fields next listed by the bureau of mines Is the san juan river region consisting essentially of rel cly level tablelands table lands and high mesas in southwestern colorado where the coal bearing formations represent a northern continuation of the major san juan basin of of northwestern new mexico the total area in colorado of the san juan region Is approximately square miles including parts part of archuleta dolores la plata montezuma montrose and san miguel counties in a generally northwest south east direction coal fields in the san juan include the nucla eucla nor wood d field of southern montrose and northern san miguel counties the e cortez mancos field of central montezuma county the mesa verde national park field of southern montezuma county and the durango field of southern la plata and western archuleta counties the durango field is subdivided sub divided into other districts comprised of hesperus red mesa bayfield and pagosa springs as the most important por tant the colorado state coal mine inspector tom alien allen reports that only one mine in archuleta county reported activity in 1954 and that to october of 1954 only tons bad had been produced that year and that was primarily tor for focal rear oca consumption in delta county seven mines had produced tons of coal through october of asiu they hey were the blue ribbon green valley no 2 king laonia paonia farmers red canon no 1 tomahawk and top garfield county had a production of tons of coal for the first ten months of 1954 from eight mines the atlas harvey gap no 2 no 3 marion kilroy new castle north canyon and sunlight by far the largest coal production was in las animas county ty where tons were ann mined during the ten months from 25 mines reporting to the state coal mine inspector these mines employed 1216 men during the reporting period gunnison county was next in production reporting that tons had bad been mined from 13 mines two bundred hundred twenty four men were employed in gunnison county mines lor for a total of days during daring the report reporting izig period one mine had bad closed and two others were idle du during g october la P plata ta county mines produced tons of coal from 12 mines one of which closed and four others became idle in mesa county tons of coal were produced providing ov employment for 44 benyr men or r a total days during the first 10 months of 1954 largest producer was the cafeo cameo which during august reported tons of coal brought to the surface and a ten month total production of tons moffat countes coun tys red wing mine produced 59 tons during the reporting period and was the only mine reporting in montrose county the independence mine reported rt ed pr production of 1884 tons and in rio blanco county three mines showed a production of tons of coal routt county mines produced tons of coal in the ten month period providing employment for men for a total of da days ys eleven mines made the report r t rera san a miguel countes coun tys only reporting I 1 mine the keck reliance was idle ige in october and during 1954 had produced but 51 tons of coal in all of colorado during daring the ten m months period ending oct 31 1954 tons of coal had been produced there were mines listed of which 10 were idle 7 were closed and 13 made no report during october |