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

  STATE  by  STATE

            Dr. Doyle and Professor Hatheway have begun a comparative program of presenting graphic plots (GIS basis) of the relative locations of former manufactured gas plants and other coal-tar sites on the basis of individual States. The plots should be useful for a number of purposes, but all tend to illustrate the fact that their locations have been incompletely reported in the major source documentation (Brown's Directory) and have to be "dug out" of research, even though their residuals and wastes are virtually indestructible through natural degradation.

            The maps will appear as we are able to complete the paired plots. The underlying research has been completed for the fifty States and for all major cities. The sole public source of this information are the individual yearly issues of Brown's Directory of North American Gas Companies, initiated at New York City in 1887, but missing six numbers before 1900. These directories were the main source of the Statewide listings incorporated in the U.S. EPA report of 1985, released to the utility industry in draft form in 1984. There are several shortcomings in the listing, not related so much to accuracy of places identified, but to the policy of the publisher of the original directories in not requesting plant-specific information, resulting in lack of identification of separate gas works in cities having gas companies with more than one gas manufacturing plant. In all cases the Directory does not supply identifying street locational information.

            Our paired plots first portray the location and distribution of gas works as gained directly from the USEPA report. The second plot of each pair deals with all of the gas works and other coal-tar sites identified by Dr. Hatheway, in his research since 1988. The viewer will note a considerable shortfall in derelict site numbers when only the USEPA data from Brown's Directory is considered. It is also well to remember that gas plants listed in the Directory are mainly commercial works operated by various utility companies, since public (municipal) gas works, unlike in Britain and on the European continent, constituted only a fraction of one percent of the total number. Furthermore, Brown's includes other coal tar sites only such as were providing “utility” or “merchant” gas for distribution through the listed commercial gas companies. None of the very large number of industrial, institutional, private and governmental gas plants and other coal tar sites were so listed and are not to be found in any other single literature reference.

            Dr. Doyle has devised a system of symbols to uniformly portray the nature of each of the plants or coal-tar facilities on the plots. The symbols are common to our entire series of State and City plots. The series of comparative plots will be expanded as time permits, considering her teaching, research, counseling and service demands at the Department of Geology, University of South Carolina, Spartanburg, SC.  Nonetheless, do look for South Carolina to appear early in the follow-up plots. All plots appear alphabetically.

            Please Note:  The map collection is a work in progress.  Each type of state map will become available as data is compiled by Professor Hatheway.

Click on a STATE or its SYMBOL to view a map of the former manufactured gas works in that state as researched by Professor Hatheway. All state maps constructed by Dr. Doyle

Comprehensive records of the numbers and actual location of former manufactured gas plants of this country do not exist. The author keeps an expanding tally based on his discoveries of such sites in the vast literature of manufactured gas. The known and estimated numbers of these plant sites in major cities are presented below, current through March 2001.

Compiled by Allen W. Hatheway, as presently known to or suspected by the author. Note that district stations are counted in FMGP column, when known as such and as potential locations of tar residuals.