The Casper Journal :: Casper's Community Newspaper

The decision to mine and crush limestone on top of Casper Mountain to produce the gravel needed to maintain county roads on the mountain is a really good one.

A story in last week’s Casper Journal and available online at www.casperjournal.com outlined how operations will begin as soon as weather and snow pack allows equipment to be brought up the backside of Casper Mountain.

The Natrona County Road and Bridge Department has permits to mine and crush approximately 81,000 tons of limestone from a site just above Beartrap Meadow. The site previously was mined 21 years ago.

The gravel is needed to maintain and improve the road base on East End and Micro roads. These two roads serve an immense area for residential, recreational and access for fire control.

This is no small amount of gravel; it will cover both roads with approximately six inches of new road base.

Gravel is a modern necessity but often availability is limited. It is required not only for roads, but for virtually any type of construction because it is a major ingredient in concrete.

But noise and dust generally make mining and crushing operations undesirable neighbors. Permitting gravel operations is a long and public process. In this case, the air and environmental permitting process has taken nearly 2 years.

According to Mike Haigler, supervisor of the County Road and Bridge Department, their requirements include misting with water for dust suppression on the sunrise to sunset operation. In this case the operations are short term and should be completed by mid-July.

But by far, the biggest reason crushing on top of Casper Mountain is a good idea has to do with truck traffic and related safety issues. Imagine following a 20-ton belly-dump truck loaded with gravel up the front or backside of the mountain. Transportation of 81,000 tons of gravel would require more than 4,000 round trips!

The convenience of the mountaintop crushing operation eliminates these trips and any related safety issues.

If transportation issues alone are not enough to convince a taxpayer that mountain-top crushing is a good idea, add in the cost of wear and tear on existing roads -- plus the price more than doubles from about $6.50 per ton to nearly $15 per ton.

That takes this idea from good to brilliant in one quick flash.

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