CASPER — The issue of gravel mining at the base of Casper Mountain continues to stir anxiety among local homeowners as a determined gravel mining operator continues to push for permission.
Office of State Lands and Investments spokesperson Melissa DeFratis confirmed that the office received a request from gravel mining operator Prism Logistics to renew leases on eight tracts of state lands at the base of Casper Mountain.
The State Board of Land Commissioners is expected to consider the leases at its June 5 meeting.
DeFratis said the topic will have its own spot on the agenda and not be part of the consent agenda, shielding it from public comment, as it was in 2023.
Prism Logistics Manager Kyle True said his renewal requests before the land board flow from his optimism that he will one day be able to pull gravel from the mountain.
His initial plans shared with the community in forums last summer focused on his lease on Section 36, the school section.
That was prior to the Natrona County Board of Commissioners amending their zoning ordinance in September 2024 to prohibit mining in a mountain residential zone.
True also filed legal action in Natrona County District Court last fall seeking “clarification” from the judge about whether he has to follow county rules.
“We believe that we are subject to DEQ (Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality) and state law,” True said. “But we don’t think we are subject to county commissioners’ conditional use permits. And that’s what we hope to see from the state judge.”
True said he believes companies should be subject to government oversight and regulation but does not believe the state has ever “given authority to county commissioners, school districts, fire districts, etc., to regulate gravel operations on state lands.”
The Casper Mountain Preservation Alliance, a nonprofit consisting of landowners and residents at the base of the mountain, remains focused on trying to prevent the project they believe will impact property values, threaten their health and safety, ruin wells and hurt the only access road to their properties.
Landowners ‘Anxious’
Casper Mountain Preservation Alliance Chairperson Carolyn Griffith said homeowners adjacent to the leased properties continue to be “anxious” about the continued possibility of a mining operation at the base of the mountain.
Members are paying attention to the State Land Board meeting in June and she said they have asked the board to consider bringing their meeting to Casper. DeFratis said Tuesday she believes the decision has been made to keep the meeting in Cheyenne.
At a meeting in April 2024, the State Land Board came to Casper and for three hours heard concerns of residents and at the end of the meeting there was a discussion about trying to investigate whether True would consider letting go of his leases.
In opposing the gravel mining, the Alliance gathered nearly 20,000 signatures on petitions against it.
“Now we are going to see how they are going to decide based on their knowledge now,” Griffith said. “They had indicated when they had awarded the leases — and then were made aware (of issues) — that they may have made a different decision had they been aware.”
Meanwhile, Natrona County District Court Judge Joshua Eames heard arguments in two civil cases related to the gravel mining issue on May 12.
One case involves a suit by the Casper Mountain Preservation Alliance and six individual property owners against Land Board asking for the gravel leases to be voided due to Land Board failures to provide them “due process” in by notifying them of the potential for gravel mine leases prior to their 2023 meetings and decisions.
“(The leases) were entered into by the (State Land) Board without first providing reasonable and meaningful notice or opportunity to be heard by plaintiffs or anyone else in the general public,” attorneys Marci Crank Bramlet and John H. Robinson wrote. “As such, these leases were issued by the Board and its members in explicit contravention of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution and Wyoming Constitution’s Declaration of Rights.”
No ‘Tangible Interest’ Harmed
The State Land Board countered the Casper Mountain Preservation Alliance and the property owners by arguing they don’t have legal standing and cannot prove any harm. They want the suit dismissed.
Senior Assistant Attorney General James Peters in a supplemental brief filed April 28 wrote that the Alliance and landowners “cannot demonstrate a tangible interest that has been harmed by the (State Land) Board’s decision to issue the leases.”
“While the plaintiffs allege they own property that may be impacted by future activities on the land, they do not demonstrate that they have a property interest that is directly affected by the Board’s decision to award leases to Prism,” he wrote. “Rather they argue that they will be harmed if mining occurs on the land.”
Peters wrote that none of the allegations by the landowners involving water loss, impact to property values, and other concerns were accompanied in court documents with a “factual basis for the alleged harms.”
Eames is expected to rule on the filings in the coming weeks.
True said Monday that the gravel business is well regulated by the DEQ and does not threaten neighboring landowners. He said he still believes the mine would provide needed gravel products for the Casper region.
“I think years from now when our pit is running, people will realize this was a bit of a tempest in a teapot,” he said. “There are a lot of misunderstandings about the gravel business and there are a lot of unjustified fears that have come to the surface.”
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
