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Locations of Gas Plants and Other Coal-tar Sites in the U.S.

► THE STATE OF IOWA 

Introduction: 

            The Corn Belt State was blessed with an abundance of near-surface coal of marginal gas-making quality and enough post-glacial topography to drive adits (horizontal tunnels) to much of it. Agricultural successes brought in a supremely dense and competitive railroad network and the official USEPA (1985) FMGP count lies at 140, with most experts expecting at least 210 eventually to be identified. Iowa’s first plants went in at Burlington and Iowa City, in 1856 and 1857, respectively, due to the bustling Mississippi River barge and steamboat trade. 1891: Coal underlies about half the state and was being produced in 25 of the 26 counties where it is known to exist, though none of it was cannel or gas-quality.

            Iowa also holds the record number of FMGP SUPERFUND sites in the nation, 25 percent of the twelve National Priority List (NPL) gas plants named so far. Iowa was first touched with natural gas distributed to the west, from Illinois, all of Texas origin, in 1931, with the first penetration in southwest Iowa.

Click the blue "EPA" link below to view the Iowa map of the EPA 1985 Radian FMGP Report.	Click the green "Hatheway" link below to view the Iowa map of Professor Hatheway's research.