The landscape west of Kemmerer’s port of entry is about to get bulldozed up.
The $30 million makeover isn’t to hunt for fossils. It’s to make it easier to get coal for power plants, send to customers looking to turn the commodity into ammonia or help with energy-starved trona mining operations.
An estimated 1.2 million cubic yards of dirt will be moved from the rolling hillsides located just west of the port of entry.
That’s the equivalent of about 50,000 truckloads of dirt, said Jennifer Hoffman, the Wyoming Department of Transportation’s chief engineer working on the project.
The nearby Kemmerer coal mine has requested that a 2.71-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 30 be realigned to the north a little bit — about half-a-mile — so that it can gain access to rich coal reserves.
Hoffman told Cowboy State Daily that an 80-to-100-foot vertical cut is needed in the hillside to the north of U.S. 30.
“That’s a pretty deep cut for what they want to do,” Hoffman said.
Another 9 Million Tons
The purpose of the project would be to allow the surface mining of Kemmerer Operations LLC to access coal that’s currently under U.S. 30 and to the north.
The design process of moving the highway began in 2018, but was put on hold a few years ago, then restarted in 2023.
The current goal is to have plans ready to begin carving into the landscape by January and complete the work no later than 2027.
The design of the new highway path considers the need to allow for the most coal recovery possible, which is different from WYDOT’s usual goal of working with the terrain to make safe curves and hills for whatever design speed the road has, Hoffman said.
In an email, Mike Memmott, controller of Kemmerer Operations LLC, which owns the coal mine, declined to comment on the mine’s future.
The Kemmerer surface mine is located to the south and is said to cover about 15 miles in total from south of the plant to the U.S. 30 line. Pushing the road to the north gives the mine access to roughly 9 million tons of coal.
The land with the new coal reserves is already under lease by Kemmerer Operations, though the company hasn’t yet secured the mining permits.
$30 Million Needed
Half of the $30 million needed to move the highway came from the Wyoming Legislature in 2018. The rest is coming from the Kemmerer mine’s owner, Hoffman said.
The 50-50 split originally was a deal worked out with the mine’s previous owner, Westmoreland Coal, which filed for bankruptcy protection and sold the surface mine to Kemmerer Operations in 2019.
The Kemmerer coal mine is located adjacent to the Naughton coal-fired power plant, whose future is of concern to local miners.
The plant currently supplies coal to some trona mining operations in the region as well as the 522-megawatt North Valmy power plant in Nevada, that state’s last coal plant.
The Berkshire Hathaway-backed PacifiCorp that owns Naughton has stated that two units of the plant will be converted to natural gas fuel by 2026, ending its reliance on coal. The plant is expected to close in 2036.
Hoffman said that half of the dirt that is to be dug up when the highway is moved will be used to build the new road to fill in dips and valleys. The remaining dirt is for the coal mine to deal with.
$1.15 Million From County
Besides the $30 million to pay for the highway’s move, Hoffman explained that the Kemmerer mine kicked in $850,000 for the engineering work on the realignment, and Lincoln County, where the mine is located, contributed $1.15 million.
The land where U.S. 30 will be pushed north is owned by a checkerboard of owners, including the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the state of Wyoming and Union Pacific Land Resources, which runs its UP railroad through the belly of the mining operation and passes underneath the current highway.
Some are skeptical that the highway will be moved without more coal commitments to mine at the Kemmerer surface mine.
Cullen Pace, who worked at the mine for 17 years and is now a representative of District 22 of the United Mine Workers of America in Price, Utah, said he didn’t envision the highway getting moved unless the coal owner locks down long-term contracts.
“That would be horrible news,” Pace told Cowboy State Daily about if the mine is closed. “The lack of coal contracts and commitment to mine is the reason it is going to close.”
The Kemmerer coal mine has the oldest active mining local in the United States. UMWA represents more than 175 miners at UMWA Local 1307.
Pat Maio can be reached at pat@cowboystatedaily.com.
