SWEETWATER COUNTY — Sweetwater County is looking at what steps it can take following the Bureau of Land Management’s release of its record of decision for the Rock Springs Resource Management Plan.

The Sweetwater County Commissioners have been vocal opponents to the BLM’s preferred alternative for the RMP, stating that it will hinder development and public use. The BLM released its record of decision on Dec. 20, and the commissioners and county are unhappy with the final RMP.

“Just everything in a nutshell, all the protests were denied. So anyone who submitted a protest, they were denied,” Land Use Director Eric Bingham said during Tuesday’s commissioner meeting.

He said that the BLM’s record of decision was unchanged from the Final Environmental Impact Statement, even after all the protests were submitted.

The previous plan that the BLM has been using to manage the lands for the past 20 years closed around 540,000 acres of land from oil and gas development, and the new plan closes around 935,000 acres, which is almost double, Bingham said.

Land designated as visual class 2, which means any development on the land has to be hidden or blend in with the environment, has also increased under the new plan. The acreage has increased from 580,000 to 1.3 million acres, which Bingham said will have effects on development.

The BLM’s right-of-way map was also adjusted, increasing the acreage of ROW exclusion areas. While Bingham said the BLM did address a lot of the exclusion areas they earlier proposed in Sweetwater County’s checkerboard land, “which would have been extremely devastating to Sweetwater County,” there’s still a lot of expansiveness in exclusion areas. He said the acreage of exclusion areas is going from 400,000 to over 900,000 acres.

There’s also been an increase in ROW avoidance areas from 730,000 acres to over a million acres. Bingham said this will make it difficult for infrastructure and other uses, and it creates concerns with county roads within those areas in terms of replacements of culverts and realignment of roads.

Bingham said there are also changes in regard to off-highway vehicles, in which the BLM is going from “limited to existing roads and trails” to “limited to designated roads and trails.” The BLM makes the designation of OHV roads and trails, which Bingham said makes a huge difference. He said the change is going from 2.3 million acres of limited to existing roads and trails for OHV to 3.3 million acres of limited to designated roads and trails.

What’s Next?

Bingham said that’s where the county is at right now, and now the discussion is how do they move forward. With the upcoming change from the Biden administration to the Trump administration, Bingham said the county may have a few options.

First, they can enter litigation and sue the BLM. Bingham said the important thing to consider with this option is standing to show harm done by the BLM. Without legal standing, he said the county would lose credibility with the court and the case would be thrown out. He added that part of litigation could be a stipulated agreement, in which they would need someone within the BLM that the county could work with.

Another option is meeting with the BLM once the new director is appointed, which should happen within the first 100 days of the Trump administration, Bingham said. Additionally, there is the option of using the Congressional Review Act, which must be done within the first 60 days.

Commissioner Island Richards asked Trinity Lewis, member of Rep. Harriet Hageman’s team, if Hageman has considered the Congressional Review Act. While Lewis couldn’t say too much about this, she did say, “I can confirm that [Rep. Hageman is] looking to reintroduce the bill to nullify the RMP and that press release will be going out soon as well.”

Bingham said one of the county’s arguments against the RMP is regarding the lack of monitoring the BLM has conducted over the area. He questioned how the BLM knows what needs to be protected if they aren’t monitoring it to track degradations and other issues.

The commissioners emphasized that this discussion is ongoing, despite the release of the record of decision, due to the significance of this issue on Sweetwater County.

“We continue to beat the dead horse on it, but it’s so significant,” Chairman Keaton West said. “I think a lot of people don’t understand how significant and important it is—the fact that everything was basically a wasted effort, idk if wasted is the right word, but certainly a disregarded effort.”

Correction: The fourth paragraph of this article was edited to reflect a correction regarding the Final Environmental Impact Statement.