The following opinion piece is a community submission and doesn’t reflect the opinion of TRN Media, which encompasses SweetwaterNOW and The Radio Network. 

Submitted by Lonnie Miller, Rock Springs

Sweetwater County is still reeling from WE Soda’s plan to cut over 350 jobs at Westvaco and shift to solution mining. Beyond the devastating blow to our miners, families, and local tax base, flooding Westvaco’s 38-square-mile underground footprint poses severe safety and environmental risks:

• Containment Risks: Decades of underground workings are completely intertwined. How will WE Soda safely section off individual areas if they flood the mine in phases under high pressure?
• Seismic and Barrier Hazards: During the February 1995 earthquake and mine collapse, rescuers had to breach into an adjoining mine to reach trapped miners—proving how close these operations sit and how suddenly pillar failures occur. If another quake or collapse happens while 38 square miles are pressurized with water, how will WE Soda prevent flooding into neighboring mines like Solvay, Tata Chemicals, or Sisecam where hundreds of our neighbors work?
• Massive Water Consumption: Flooding 38 square miles (24,320 acres) with 20-foot ceilings represents up to 486,400 acre-feet of volume—still requiring hundreds of thousands of acre-feet even after accounting for support pillars. In arid Southwest Wyoming, committing that much water while risking groundwater contamination and surface stability demands strict scrutiny.

For generations, local miners have worked 1,800 feet underground with safety first. Cutting 40% of the workforce while threatening our water and neighboring mines is unsustainable. State regulators, local leaders, and WE Soda owe Sweetwater County transparent answers and strict oversight before a single gallon is pumped underground.