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Show Energy Guide 6 - - February 2000 Study estimates 3.8 billion tons of mineable coal remain in Wasatch field The Wasatch Plateau in Castle Valley is classified as Utah's most important and productive coal field. Coal is vital to Utah's economy since it fuels about 95 percent of the electricity generated in the state. In addition, coal is a major overseas export commodity for Utah, accounting for more than $100 million in export sales in 1996. Demand for Utah coal has nearly doubled within the past 15 years. County, state and federal governing bodies involved with land management and economic planning rely on geological surveys to provide estimates of the amount, type and location of coal resources in the United States. The governing bodies also rely on geological surveys to describe the uncertainty of the coal resource estimates. te The Utah Geological Survey has conducted a new regional assessment of the amount of fossil fuel remaining for future development in the northern part of the Wasatch Plateau field, which currently provides about 87 percent of the state's coal. Information compiled in the study was provided by the Utah office of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the teau. The Wasatch Plateau lies along the gently inclined western flank of the San Rafael Swell. Inclination of the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining, the Utah Automated Geographic Reference Center and the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration. strata is usually less than six degrees to the west or north- The new assessment includes calculating the amount of coal originally in the ground, as well as determining the magnitude of past mining and the potential restrictions to future mining on the Wasatch Plateau. An important study objective was to determine how much minable coal re mains and where it is located. The results of the Utah findings will be incorporated into the current national coal assessment program of the U.S. a Geological Survey. The coalbeds mined in the Wasatch Plateau field occur in the 700 to 1,1 00 upfoot-thic- k per cretaceous Blackhawk Formation. The cretaceous strata, as well as some west. The strata of the Wasatch Plateau have been broken by series of V d fault blocks called grabens, which have dropped as much as 1,000 feet. The Joes Valley and Pleasant Valley grabens cut the northern Wasatch Plateau study area. There are 13 principal coalbeds in the Blackhawk e Data distribution and spacing were used to establish j various levels of reliability for the coal resource estimates. Areas underlain by the j various coalbeds were measured by computer and multiplied by the thickness to calculate coal volumes. Finally, the calculated coal - When additional information is added in the future. j (Continued on page 12j r,- i ( - v ? 1 r V . U . yb A k7 1 r-- , ' i t 4 jA 9 . ft - ' f 4 0 ft A'; - " a" f -- r- NJAAA--'. t r ' I 4 ::T AJ r, i - j; ; ? i S i as The Utahrah j arrived. Experience College of csteni Prehistori lxUseum. jUj , ; j j in the esti-mat- the ground. The UGS used a computerized geographic information system (GIS) to store data and to calculate and map the coal reserves. The GIS system has two great advantages: mix-identifi- r Coalbed thickness data in caused some to be locally or given a number of different local names. The UGS study attempts to clear up some past confusion regarding the coalbed names. The coalbeds that have his pleted quickly. The coal reserve calcula-- ! tions and mapping can be rerun quickly using slightly different assumptions. (For example, how the remaining coal reserve picture changes when the minimum coalbed thickness is changed from four feet to six feet.) from scattered drill holes and measured sections were processed by computer to the thickness and extent of each coalbed in all parts of the study area. coal. The coal thickness. And the density of the coal ture of the coalbeds has i The first step The area underlain by Formation, only six of which have seen significant mining. Faulting and the lenticular na- com- - Wasatch involved calculating the amount of minable coal resources originally in the ground. Plateau: M. 0 calculations can be northern Wasatch Plateau through the end of 1996. The production total amounts to 86 percent of past coal mining in the entire Wasatch Plateau coal field. Three types of information were used to calculate the amount of coal in the Wasatch north-trendin- g down-droppe- There's terror lurking in the lab . . . L V new coal reserve maps and torically seen the most mining in the Castle Valley area are the Cottonwood, Blind Canyon and Wattis. Lesser mining activity has taken place in the Axel Anderson, Bear Canyon, and Castle Gate A beds. Production records indicate that 351 million tons of coal had been removed from the younger tertiary units, cap the highly dissected Wasatch Pla- : 0 0 . P r s A i I , 4 k t & ft V, . . - 3 1 i A- i , J JWMiu i r Winter Hours Monday-Saturda- y 9:00 am - 5:00 pm TtT Summer Hours Daily 9:00 am - 6:00 pm e. i6cory.pt l! jt i rist Main ;Y(435ysB-z- i IT tit St - hi |