There are likely a number of people locally who don’t agree with the decision to build the Natrium nuclear facility in Kemmerer. We too were rooting for the facility to be built in Sweetwater County, but we also think it’s safe to say that Kemmerer was facing a much more dire economic situation without the facility.
That said, we also think Sweetwater County will benefit from the economic activity coming to Kemmerer. One only needs to look at the economic activity in Sublette County 15 years ago to see a similar trend.
Back then, Southwest Wyoming was in the midst of an economic boom fueled by oil and natural gas development in the Jonah Field. Pinedale was a major hub of activity, but a large number of oil field workers resided in Rock Springs. Major oil companies opted to build new facilities in Rock Springs, which included massive complexes for Haliburton and Schlumberger. U.S. 191 North was so clogged with traffic people referred to the highway as the Jonah 500.
There was a lot of money being spent locally for work that was more than 100 miles away.
Do we think that kind of activity will happen again with the Natrium facility? Not at all. It’s also important to realize while Kemmerer is roughly 80 miles from Rock Springs, it’s only about 50 miles from Evanston. Yet, despite that, some of the estimated 2,000 workers needed for the peak construction period will live in Sweetwater County.
We believe Sweetwater County is much better equipped to handle a transient workforce than Evanston is and we don’t see Kemmerer and Diamondville being remotely capable of housing and supporting a workforce estimate that is nearly two-thirds the combined population of those two towns. Even if several large man camps are brought into Lincoln County, we don’t see the worker housing issue being solved without people living in Sweetwater County.
Sweetwater County will gain from the Natrium facility in Kemmerer. Hopefully, the future will see a similar facility built near the Jim Bridger Power Plant.
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