City, county to apply for impact assistance funds

The future of industry in Sweetwater County continues to progress, with local governments and entities preparing for the potential impact, and working to request funding to help alleviate that impact.

This week, both the Green River City Council and Sweetwater County Board of County Commissioners approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) during their regular meetings that will allow them to work together with other entities in order to apply for impact assistance funds from the Industrial Siting Council in the process of establishing Project West.

Project West has been working to bring a new solution trona mine and soda ash processing facility to the Green River region. The project has been going through the stages of acquiring an Industrial Siting permit as required by the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality's Industrial Siting Division and the Industrial Siting Council. The Council also has the power to award impact assistance funding to communities to alleviate unmitigated impacts of projects that will affect the community, such as increased demands on housing and infrastructure.

In order to receive those funds, however, the communities must apply for them, which is why multiple meetings have been hosted over the last few weeks to meet with entities and finalize applications. Sweetwater County Commissioner Island Richards led this effort for the county, assisted by Commissioner Robb Slaughter. They met with groups and entities, from city governments to businesses like the Sweetwater County Regional Airport, Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County, and Castle Rock Hospital District, to determine expected impacts and work through funding requests.

On March 14, the county hosted a meeting to adopt the MOU between the various counties and municipalities that will be requesting impact funding.

"We felt it was critical to get unanimous support from the entities, and were able to do so," Commissioner Slaughter explained.

The MOU is between the counties of Sweetwater, Lincoln and Uinta, as well as the cities and towns of Green River, Rock Springs, Granger, Superior, Cokeville, Diamondville, Kemmerer, Labarge, Opal, Bear River, Evanston, Lyman and Mountain View.

Commissioner Richards explained that currently Sweetwater County's request, which includes requests for Green River and Rock Springs, is for about $8.6 million. This is about 41% of the available funding, which is capped at $25 million. This request is especially conservative considering the fact that Sweetwater County was estimated to have about 76% of the project's impact.

"We were very precise in our requests, though, and we vetted the requests that were presented under our umbrella very thoroughly to make sure that they all complied with the statutes, that they were actual impact requests," Commissioner Richards explained. "We believe they are all valid and very defendable."

Sweetwater County, and the other entities in the MOU, will have to defend their funding requests to the Industrial Siting Council during the Project West Industrial Siting hearing, which is scheduled for May.

Both the commissioners and the Green River City Council approved the MOU, explaining this part of the process creates the framework to allow all of the entities to continue to work together as they finalize their applications for funding.