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W N t'.:' ~ eastern margins of the region as well as around the Rock Springs uplift. The higher rank coals are of Cretaceous age. Coal- bearing rocks in the Green River Region are largely concealed by younger rocks and very little is known about the total coal re- sources in the area. Coal beds in the region occur in the Mesaverde Group and the Lance Formation of Upper Cretaceous age, the Fort Union Formation of Paleocene age, and the Wasatch Formation of Eocene age. Coal of the Rock Spr fogs Format ion of the Mesaverde has historically been the most important. Coal has been mined in Sweetwater County mainly by underground, and also by surface methods. VI. DATA DEVELOPMENT FOR THE ENERGY SECTOR Coal The Upper Colorado River Bas in is located in the Rocky Mountain Coal Province. Coal is one of the major energy minerals in the basin. Of the 139 billion tons of coal reserves, bituminous coal accounts for 69 percent, 3l percent is subbituminous, and less than 1 percent is anthracite (U. S. Water Resources Council 1971). Coal deposits in the eight water resources subareas are shown in Figure 7. Coal deposits are found in four major coal bearing regions, and additional deposits are found in other areas. Hams Fork Region The Hams Fork Region is located in Western Wyoming. The coal bearing rocks crop out in long narrow belts which are highly folded and thrust faulted. The Bear River, Frontier, aod Adaville Formations of Cretaceous age, Bnd the Evanston Formation of Paleocene age, are the major coal-bearing rocks. The region contains four coal fields: Evanston, Kemmerer, Greys River, and McDougal (Glass 1976). The quality of coal ranges between high volatile A bituminous and subbituminous B. Coal deposits up to 20 feet thick occur in the Frontier Formation and are the higher-ranking beds. The Adaville Formation coal is subbituminous in the southern part of the region and bituminous in the north. In the southern half of the region near Kemmerer, .Lincoln County, 17 Adaville coal beds exceed 6 feet in thickness and are the best developed in the Kemmerer field. All active mining of this coal is by surface methods. Green River Re~ion The Green River Region covers about l5,400 square miles in southwestern Wyoming and extends into Moffat, Routt, and Rio Blanco Counties in northwestern Colorado. Six coal fields in the Wyoming portion are Kindt Basin, Great Divide Basint Little Snake River, Rock Springs, Henry's Fork, and LaBarge Ridge. Coal ranges in rank from subbituminous C to high volatile C bitumi- nous. The higher rank coals occur on the In COlorado, coal reserves of this region lie within the Yampa field. The Yampa River, a tributary of the Green River, drains a major part of the area. Most of the coal in this field is of high volatile C bitumi- nous rank (Landis 1959). It contains strip- pable coal in several beds. Uinta Region The coal deposits in this region lie within the boundaries of two structural basins: the Uinta to the west and the Piceance Creek to the east. The coal occurs in the Mesaverde group of Late Cretaceous age and ranges in rank from subbituminous to anthracite. Ninety-four percent of the total is bituminous in rank, mainly high-volatile C. The annual average values per ton of coal in this region are higher than the national average. The Uinta re~ion contains about 3 percent of the nation s original coal re- serves (under less than 3,000 feet of over- burden). However, historical market condi- tions have limited production to 1 percent of the total national production (Bureau of Mines 1970). In Utah, 98 percent of the state's coal production has been mined in the Uinta Region (Carbon and Emery Counties), but only II percent of Colorado's product ion comes from this region. The productive coal fields in Carbon and Emery Counties, Utah, are Castlegate, Sunny- side, and Emery. The Vernal coal field which includes all coal deposits in Uintah County has been mined under poor mining conditions. The Book Cliffs field is located between the Utah-Colorado state line and the Colorado 31