Work Continues on Acme Power Plant Site

Despite COVID-19, work continues on the old Acme Power Plant site north of Sheridan, and Carrie Rogaczewski anticipates that field work and data collection should be completed early this summer.

Rogaczewski is manager of the Sheridan County Conservation District which owns the approximately five-acre plant site and has been spearheading the project to reclaim the area.

Assessment of the site has been funded by a grant from the federal Environmental Protection Agency administered through Wyoming’s Department of Environmental Quality. In addition, there has been some cleanup of the plant site.

Rogaczewski said assessment might be completed by the end of the calendar year, although work might continue longer. She expects to hold public meetings this summer or in the fall to provide updates on what’s being done and present proposed alternatives for future use of the site.

The plant was built in 1910 and for several decades provided coal-fired electrical power to the coal mining communities that once dotted the Tongue River Valley, as well as the city of Sheridan. The plant operated until 1976 and was later allegedly used for other, unregistered activities including car crushing and battery recycling.

The Sheridan County Conservation District bought the power plant in 2017, in cooperation with the Sheridan Community Land Trust and the Nature Conservancy.