While discussions about Green River joining Solid Waste District No. 1 continue to occur at City Hall, there may be another route for the city to get involved in a solid waste district.
Chris Meats, finance director for the city and a member of solid waste district no. 1’s board, said Green River was involved in discussions to form a Sweetwater County Solid Waste District No. 3 during the 1980s. He said the district never came to a vote and a mill levy, a portion of property taxes reserved for the county, schools and special tax districts, was never established.
Meats said the area’s trona mines provided the city with two garbage trucks in an attempt to derail the discussions and convince the city to continue using its landfill. A mill levy imposed on the area’s trona mines would provide the district with a large amount of revenue, but also increase costs for the industry. Meats said the trucks were still in service when the city discontinued its landfill and sold its solid waste equipment to Wyoming Waste Services after the company and city finalized a contract to dispose the city’s garbage.
Discussions about joining Sweetwater County Solid Waste District No. 1 have continued as well, with Meats saying the topic is brought up a few times a year -- often when Wyoming Waste Services begins to assess a rate increase at the start of the new year. According to the city’s contract with the company, WWS can increase their rates in accordance with an increase in the Consumer Price Index, which measures the change in prices for goods. According to information provided by the city, the CPI form September 2019 and September 2020 increased by 1.37%
“For years, there’s been discussion,” Meats said.
He said a few residents have approached him and asked why the city hasn’t joined the district, as city residents would not be charged some fees as out of area customers. Meats also said Mayor Pete Rust has approached Rock Springs Mayor Tim Kaumo and the Sweetwater County commissioners about the idea as well.
However, to join, the city would first need to provide a signed petition which must include property owners within the area seeking to join the district before further discussions would take place.
While joining the district would be seen as a fix to many of the issues people have involving taking their garbage to the landfill outside Rock Springs, Meats believes change is on the horizon for Sweetwater County Solid Waste District No. 1 because of the impending unit closures at the Jim Bridger Power Plant. The plant, which is included in the district’s taxation boundaries, provides a significant amount of revenue to the district and landfill.
When those units are taken offline, the first of which is scheduled in 2024, that would lower the property value of the plant, lowering the amount of taxes paid into the district and other mill levy dependant groups, such as Sweetwater County School District No. 1.
Meats believes the board should address that looming shortfall now and establish a five-year plan to address those potential impacts to the district.
“In five years time, we might have more shrinkage than we thought,” he said.
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