WKE Sells Land for Wetland Use

WKE sold approximately 270 acres of a surface parcel known as the Henderson Reserve, to the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The land will be used by the Kentucky Division of Forestry to develop a bottomland hardwood forest as a wetland credit bank for the Kentucky Department of Transportation. (A wetland credit bank serves as a reserve to compensate for the loss of another wetland, in cases of development, construction, etc.).

In the late 1990's, WKE purchased the land, along with mineral rights, from Pittsburg and Midway Coal Company when the coal giant decided to get out of the high-sulfur coal business. WKE had been a long-time customer of Pittsburg and Midway and, when the company announced it was selling the Henderson County property, WKE acquired the land to possibly mine coal for WKE's power plant operations. Approximately 35 million tons of coal could be mined on the property.

The property is in the floodplains where the Green and Ohio Rivers meet, and it is under water most of the time. The acreage that was sold was not important to any future mining operation because it would not have been able to support a mine entrance. Since the land had no value to any future development of the Henderson Reserves, WKE sold the parcel to help various Kentucky agency interests.

WKE still maintains the mineral rights to the land, as well as the right to enter and exit the property as long as there is no surface disturbance to the re-developed bottomland hardwood forest and wetlands.