ROCK SPRINGS — The deadline was Monday, Sept. 23, and the protest is in.

The Sweetwater County Commission on Monday posted its formal protest of the Bureau of Land Management’s Rock Springs Field Office Proposed Resource Management Plan amendment and Final Environmental Impact Statement.

In the 91-page document provided to the Rocket Miner, the commissioners claim the BLM failed in many ways, including:

Failure to provide proper public notice

Failure to adequately inventory and monitor existing areas of critical environmental concern

Failure to properly analyze and explain the relevant and important resources for each proposed ACEC, and

Failure to address how the proposed RMP will directly impact the county’s economy, customs and way of life.

Chairman Keaton West told the Rocket Miner there is, no doubt, a lot to digest in the protest letter. However, he said the letter clearly and most importantly indicates “that this could have and should have been handled much more cooperatively and professionally, as it initially started out over a decade ago.”

“Much of Sweetwater County’s protest is relative to issues brought forth during the draft EIS, that remained unanswered in the final EIS,” West said. “There are mandatory procedures in the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 andNational Environmental Policy Act processes that were simply disregarded, which include the BLM working collaboratively with their cooperators, Sweetwater County being one of them.”

According to West, the county continues to take issue with the amount of ACEC acreage the BLM has proposed, as well as with many of the special designations that will affect the industry powerhouses the county heavily relies upon.

Keaton noted other issues the county has with the proposed RMP.

“We have continued concerns with access to roads, and gaining clarity on the difference within the BLM’s classification of existing roads versus designated roads. Overall accessibility is problematic for several uses, whether it be for recreation, industry, or future development,” he said.

Speaking for his fellow commissioners, Keaton said they are concerned the proposed plan still does not represent multi-use and sustained yield. The protest letter states the BLM failed to update its socioeconomic impact analysis for the proposed RMP with any quantifiable data; any economic data collected by the BLM was done in 2012 and then updated in 2016 — eight years ago.

“There is also insufficient analysis of the impacts on the state and on renewable development as they relate to the ACECs and other designated values and resources,” the protest letter additionally states.

In the letter, the county further notes the impact the proposed RMP will have on the county’s valuation, since 55% of that is derived from natural gas, oil and trona, which take a big hit in the proposed RMP.

“(A) decrease in this valuation due to closing public lands to fund mineral leasing or identifying a large swath of right-of-way exclusions ... will severely impact a wide range of county services that depend on this money.”

The county determined the loss will be 74%.

To put it in perspective, Sweetwater County in 2023 received $16,897,535 in oil and gas production ad valorem taxes; a 74% reduction would result in a loss of a little over $12 million, decreasing total revenue to $4,333,359.

“The most significant revenue shortfall would impact local school districts, whose revenue would drop from $8,502,839.98 to $2,946,684.32,” the letter states.

Losses to essential services such as health and safety agencies would also occur, the county determined.

In order to resolve the errors and insufficient analysis in the proposed RMP, the county suggests the BLM either go back and start the RMPA over or conduct a supplementary EIS based on “appropriate inventories of the planning area with the appropriate level of involvement of the cooperators during the process.”

Keaton had high praise for the team that worked on the county’s formal protest.

“Our team did a great job in planning and preparing for this protest — our hats are off to them,” he said. “We hope the federal government will realize and own the mistakes they made in how they’ve handled this process since their official roll-out a year ago.”

The BLM Director is required to respond to these protests, and a Protest Resolution Report will be published by the BLM in the near future.