Asbestos Removal Inside Old Acme Power Plant Building Resumes

Now that the weather has warmed up, asbestos removal work has resumed within the old Acme Power Plant.

Work started in September of last year and was suspended in late November, when conditions became too cold for the equipment to be used properly and effectively.

Horsley Specialties Incorporated out of Rapid City, South Dakota is the company performing the work on behalf of the Sheridan County Conservation District.

Owner and President Zack Horsley says about 70% of the work was completed last year and more than 1,000 bags of asbestos have been removed and hauled to a proper waste facility in Casper.

He explains where the majority of the work has been done.

“Our big focus was on the boiler rooms, so the big taller section, where they had the boilers. Can’t remember the year they put them together. There’s 3 massive boilers in there. Our guys started at the top, removing what was still on the pipes, and then cleaning up what had already fallen off the pipes and moving all the way towards the ground.”

Once work in that area is finished, an emergency demolition has to be performed on a portion of the building, because the roof is starting to collapse in certain areas.

The asbestos cleanup and emergency demolition is scheduled to be completed by the end of June.

The Sheridan County Conservation District plans to eventually deconstruct the power plant building, but before that can be done, the soil surrounding the building needs to be decontaminated.