Research about Alton, Utah | Geology Reports

USGS1979

Hydrologic evaluation of the Alton reclamation-study site, Alton coal field, Utah

This investigation was conducted from July 1974 to September 1977 to define general hydrologic conditions at a reclamation-study site in the Alton coal field near Kanab, Utah. The average annual streamflow through the area was less than 600 acre-feet (0.7 cubic hectometer), and the water carried little sediment except during floods which result from intense local storms. Most of the surface water seeps into the ground or is diverted for irrigation downstream from the study area. Ground-water data were insufficient to define the potentiometric surface in most of the area. The water level in each of the three observation wells in the study area is above the coal layer in the immediate area of the well. A larger network of wells is needed to define the potentiometric surface throughout the area and to show its relation to surface water and the location of the coal layers. The short period of this investigation coincided with a drought in southern Utah. Hydrologic data should be collected continuously to establish a hydrologic base before mining begins, and data collection should be continued through the periods of mining and reclamation.

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USGS1976

Coal resources of the Alton, Utah, EMRIA site

The estimated original identified coal resources of the Alton, Utah, EMRIA (Energy Minerals Rehabilitation Inventory and Analysis) site--an area of about 3.6 square miles (9.3 square kilometres)--total almost 49 million tons (45 megatonnes). A larger area that surrounds and includes the Alton EMRIA site proper contains estimated original identified coal resources of almost 309 million tons (281 megatonnes). Of these estimated resources in the EMRIA site proper, almost 27 million tons (25 megatonnes) are in beds more than 10 feet thick (3 metres); these beds are overlain by less-than 200 feet (60 metres) of overburden. In the larger area around and including the EMRIA site, about 88.5 million tons (81 megatonnes) are in beds more than ten feet (3 metres) thick with less than 200 feet (60 metres) of overburden. All the estimated resources are in the Smirl zone in the upper part of the Dakota Formation of Cretaceous age. The coal has an apparent rank of subbituminous B, an average heating value of about 9,560 Btu, an average sulfur content of about 1.0 percent, and an average ash content of 7.2 percent. When compared with the average abundance of elements in the crust of the Earth as a whole, only selenium and boron were present in the Alton area coal samples in amounts an order of magnitude greater than the average crustal abundance. Beryllium, fluorine, nickel, zinc, and zirconium are all present in the Alton area samples in amounts that are about an order of magnitude less than the average crustal abundance.

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