SWEETWATER COUNTY – An online meeting Friday amongst the Sweetwater County Commissioners focused on the county’s efforts to protest the Bureau of Land Management’s Final Environmental Impact Statement for lands managed by the Rock Springs Field Office.

Sweetwater County Land Use Director Eric Bingham updated the commissioners with work that has gone on in drafting the county’s protest letter to the BLM, saying there were still some items needing to be added to the letter, including socio-economic information about the county, the negative effect the proposed Resource Management Plan would have, and basic comments the county plans to highlight. Bingham said the second volume of the RMP contains the comments from the draft Environmental Impact Statement and the county intends to choose comments that were not addressed in the Final Environmental Impact Statement. He also said Gene Legerski, the county’s public works director, provided him with statistics about road impacts with right-of-way exclusion areas.

“The biggest thing when you take a look at this letter and protest is BLM’s lack of following procedures and process,” Bingham said.

The draft letter is 19 pages long and highlights several aspects of the Final Environmental Impact Statement the county takes issue with. Bingham asked the commissioners to approve the protest letter, authorizing Chairman Keaton West to sign it and give county staff the ability to make final edits to it.

“The substance of the protest letter is not going to change, it’s just adding supporting information such as exhibits,” Bingham said.

The commissioners approved the protest letter and allowed staff to make final changes to it.