What’s So Special About State Land Proposed For Controversial Casper Gravel Pit?

Glenn Bochmann stood near the foot of Casper Mountain on Sunday, exploring a pristine swath of state-owned land as the sound of Squaw Creek gurgled just to the east.

He talked about about finding a buffalo skull on Section 36 of the area, aka the “School Section,” years ago during a hike. Motorized vehicles are not allowed here. He pointed his hand up the grassy slope to the south where a few houses sit at the base of the mountain.

This has been a favorite place for locals to hike, mountain bike and enjoy the outdoors.

“My heart is in this neck of the woods,” he said. “That was my wife’s family’s homestead in 1933. My wife lived there forever,” he said.

Bochmann and his wife lived on the family homestead for 30 years before moving into Casper. He minces no words about what a proposed gravel mine at the base of the mountain to the east of the houses means to the area and the people who live there.

“I am deadly against this gravel pit,” he said.

For Bochmann and more than 100 others, the mountain was important enough to take a chunk out of a Sunday afternoon and join members of the Casper Mountain Preservation Alliance in walking the School Section and judge for themselves what a gravel mine would do to the area.

‘See What Everybody Is Talking About’

Alliance Chairperson Carolyn Griffith said her group wanted to the let the mountain lobby for itself against the controversial proposal by Prism Logistics to dig into the base of the mountain and pull gravel out of leased sections of state land.

The School Section is one of the areas leased by the company that sits in the middle of the potential gravel mining area. Concerns that a gravel pit would make the land unusable for recreation, as well as the impacts on local roads, water quality and kicking up dust have sparked vocal opposition to the proposal.

“It matters to people. It is important … just to let people come out and see what everybody is talking about,” Griffith said about getting people to see the Casper Mountain area for themselves. “A lot of people in town have heard about it but they maybe even haven’t been here, and so we wanted to make sure that they were invited here and kind of saw what some of the issues were, particularly with the water.”

Alliance member Jason Knopp told the crowd before they walked around the area to understand that the vegetation they saw represented the area where water was just under the surface. He wanted them to understand how that impacts wells and water rights in the area.

“Everywhere they are digging they are going to be digging into where the water is draining from,” he said. “So, there is no way they are going to be able to avoid some type of water flow any way they try to mitigate this.”

Neal Lein, who lives in Casper and not at the base of the mountain, said he came to “see what was going on.” He said the gravel mining would likely affect residents in the city as well as the mountain.

“We are going to have the effect of it there too, because the wind blows in that direction,” he said. “That and the water problem is probably the biggest thing. If you try and get a gravel pit below 30 feet you are going to hit water.”

Lein, who has lived in Casper for 15 years, said he has been on Casper Mountain but never walked the School Section.

Water Flowing, Birds Chirping

Those who walked a 3.5-mile loop around the section found a quickly flowing Squaw Creek still sending melting snow toward the North Platte River. Adjacent to the creek, a watery bog leaked water that was just underneath the grassy surface. The trail revealed birds chirping in bushes, a few wildflowers in bloom, tracks of deer or antelope and ant mounds of gravelly rock.

Damien Eckhardt and Kodi Merschat, who live in Casper, said they came to support the Alliance. They are both Casper natives and said they oppose any gravel mining.

“This is the first time out (on the section) this season, we come out every year to see the poppies that bloom down there,” Merschat said. “We just use the access, my employees come out here all the time and walk it for lunch.”

Retired teacher Greta Spencer said she lives on Wolf Creek just east of the School Section and likes to hike and explore the state lands and enjoy the views of the mountain. She’s also against any gravel mining and said she values her view of the mountain and the wildlife that could be affected should mining happen.

“Last summer I had a little moose that was confused,” she said. “Last Sunday I had a coyote, and I’ve had a mountain lion that fell asleep in the yard right across from me. We have wildlife, plus the deer and the antelope.

“I don’t want to lose my view.”

Anna Studer, also a Wolf Creek resident, said she enjoys running the School Section.

“That’s a huge detriment this project will cause is just taking away the beauty from trail runners such as myself,” she said. “It would be such a bummer to see trucks coming and going. I’m here to support friends, too.”

Studer’s son Jak, said he explores the School Section often and hikes it.

“There is so much back there, there is an abundance of wildlife, fossils, and there is so much stuff that they would be ruining,” he said. “I’ve seen frogs, salamanders, there’s little stuff that I have not seen (elsewhere) back there.”

‘Blatant Disregard For Everyone’

Bruce Slenskar said he was at the gathering as a member of the opposition to the gravel pit. He lives in Garden Creek Heights just less than a mile east of the School Section. He shared how vital the water issue is for him.

“All the wells here are 30 feet deep, and if somebody came and dug a well above me I would probably have a chance of losing my water,” he said. “I see this as an absolute, blatant disregard for everyone up here other than the almighty dollar.”

Prism Logistics owner Kyle True, who has proposed a limited mining operation on the mountain, has told Cowboy State Daily that he believes the concerns the opposition group has can be resolved.

“We think all the concerns that have been raised — water quality and volume, air quality, road disturbance, property values — will not materialize in a negative way,” he said. “We are encouraged to find that water wells can be drilled in this area successfully, and if we were to have any negative impacts on water supplies, we would consider drilling a well and donating it to a homeowners’ association or some such.”

True said any future operations on Coates Road along the School Section would involve trucks traveling at not more than 20 mph, only during daylight and without the use of Jake brakes.

Prism Logistics plans would be to separate rock from the soil and remove it at the mountain location, True said. He said crushing, stacking and sales operations would be done at another location.

“So, we are looking forward to letting people know there are ways we can work together and harvest what is good while protecting the local culture and environment,” he said.

Any limited mining operation on the mountain would require Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality approval permits for air and water quality.

True is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at a Liberty’s Place 4 U event Thursday from 6:30-9:30 p.m. at the Ramkota Hotel in Casper where he will discuss his gravel mining proposal.

Griffith said some members of the Alliance plan to attend, but do not plan on speaking.

Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.