This story is part of an ongoing series between WyoFile and The Water Desk exploring water issues in Wyoming. —Ed
After a town council shakeup, Micah Foster was suddenly mayor of his tiny eastern Wyoming agricultural town. A wave of resignations last April meant that in addition to getting up at 2 a.m. each day for his regular job — delivering bread to grocery stores for Bimbo Bakeries — Foster found himself running his 400-person town.
In June, as Foster was still adjusting to his new role, he got some good news. Lingle was awarded a $1.4 million American Rescue Plan Act grant to upgrade aging sewage pipelines — a big deal for any small town, sparing it from having to borrow the money because it cannot possibly raise rates high enough to cover such an expense. Lingle even secured the required 10% match from the state, Foster said.
But there was a hitch. To complete the required engineering plan, the town still needed the cooperation of BNSF Railway to cross its tracks on the south side — a slow process and an effort that the town’s small, overworked staff struggled to accomplish.
Wyoming officials, in July, reminded town leaders that the engineering plan must be complete, contracts signed and the project “shovel-ready” by Oct. 1, or the state would be forced to revert, or claw back, the grant to pre-empt the federal government from taking the money back — from Lingle and the state.
“There’s no way we can get that done,” Foster said, adding, “We’re not Cheyenne,” referring to the capital city’s advantage in having a full professional staff. “We don’t have an engineer on staff to do this and push it. So we were happy [when initially approved for the grant] and then we were sad.
“It’s like dangling a carrot in front of you but it was never really there,” he added.
ARPA dollars in Wyoming
The 2021 American Rescue Plan Act appropriated $350 billion to help the nation recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and to address climate impacts, prioritizing water and sewer system upgrades as one of six main efforts to be funded. Although the ARPA program includes grant awards directly to communities and other entities, it also includes appropriations to each state to administer.
State officials in Wyoming were given the opportunity to distribute more than $1 billion. Of that, the Wyoming Legislature set aside about $144 million for water and sewer improvements.
Many Wyoming towns and entities that have been awarded ARPA grant dollars administered by the state worry they may suffer the same fate. In August, the Office of State Lands and Investments hosted a webinar with municipalities and others, striking a tone of urgency as staff reiterated the Oct. 1 deadline to prove ARPA grant projects are ready for shovels to hit dirt, or lose the money.
“We want to have this opportunity to make long-term investments with these dollars,” Wyoming Grants Management Office Administrator Christine Emminger told attendees. “So create the pressure on your contractors to get these dollars obligated, get them contracted at your local government or your entity level. Because if they are not contracted, and you do not provide that evidence to the Office of the State Lands and Investments (OSLI), we will have to go back and recapture those dollars.”
More than 50 of 159 state-administered ARPA grant recipients for water and sewer projects have yet to file completed compliance documents to avoid recapture, according to state officials.
“OSLI is in regular communication with all the entities that have not yet provided the necessary information, and are making every effort to provide assistance, where possible,” Gov. Mark Gordon’s press secretary Michael Pearlman told WyoFile.
The state is also facing a tight deadline, and is at risk of losing potentially tens of millions of federal dollars that budget-strapped communities desperately need. Wyoming’s mineral royalty revenues, which used to fund such water infrastructure funds, are drying up due to the declining coal industry.
State officials, under the guidance of the governor’s office, will determine in October which ARPA grants to claw back, then rush to “redeploy” those dollars before the federal government’s Dec. 31 deadline, they say. Though Gordon has indicated his priorities for redeploying ARPA dollars, exactly who and what projects the state might choose before the end of the year is yet to be determined.
“Any funds available after the Oct. 1 deadline may be deployed to local governments to reimburse or reduce local matches for previously approved water infrastructure projects,” according to an Aug. 19 press release from the governor’s office.
Meanwhile, there’s an increasingly urgent need among Wyoming towns to update water and sewer systems.
The neighboring oil boom-and-bust towns of Midwest and Edgerton in the middle of the historic Salt Creek oilfield are relying on ARPA dollars to help cover an estimated $5 million cost to replace 7 miles of potable water pipeline at risk of corrosion due to acidic soils in the oilfield.
In the neighboring towns of Kemmerer and Diamondville (with a combined population of about 3,000) in the state’s southwest corner, town officials have described a chicken-and-egg dilemma to fund long-overdue upgrades necessary to not only meet current demands, but to meet the needs of construction workers arriving for the $4 billion Natrium nuclear energy project already underway. The construction workforce is expected to peak at 1,600 in 2028, although many of the workers will commute from other nearby towns, according to officials. Project developers, backed by both the U.S. Department of Energy and Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates, say it’s up to local government entities in Wyoming or the federal government to make any needed investments.
Human-caused climate change plays a role, too, forcing many towns to consider increasing competition for secure sources of water made more scarce due to warming and drying trends.
Cascading water challenges
Sometimes when you patch a leak, you spring another one down the line. Then another, and another.
That was the challenge for city water crews in Rawlins over Labor Day weekend. They chased and patched six leaks at gushing “weak points” in the aging municipal water system that serves both Rawlins and neighboring Sinclair without major interruptions to water deliveries, according to officials.
It’s a routine that many water crews in Wyoming towns have become well practiced at in recent years: Fixing one leak in a frangible network begets another — a result of depressurizing then re-pressurizing segments of pipe. The problem worsens when you’re dealing with an aging system long overdue for upgrades.
And towns like Rawlins aren’t just patching leaks. They’re looking at systemwide water and sewer upgrades vital to simply meet existing demand, not to mention potential population growth and previously unfathomed pressures of climate change.
In March 2022, Rawlins residents were under a boil order for nearly a week due to a “catastrophic” failure in the 100-plus-year-old wood-stave pipelines that deliver the majority of water to the municipal system from springs 30 miles south of town.
In addition to the expense and task of gradually upgrading the wooden pipelines — nearly 2 miles have been replaced so far — the town also brought back online a long-derelict pre-water treatment plant so it can supplement its water supply by pumping from the North Platte River, as needed. Flow from the springs that provide Rawlins and Sinclair most of their water varies greatly, depending on seasonal snowpack, according to city officials. And those seasonal flows are only becoming more unpredictable.
All told, it will take nearly $60 million for necessary water system upgrades, according to Rawlins officials. They’ve already had some success landing grant dollars from state and federal sources, including ARPA dollars. But to secure those grants, and other funds in the form of loans, water users have been asked to pony up.
“It’s like dangling a carrot in front of you but it was never really there.”
Micah Foster, Lingle Mayor
The average residential water utility bill has increased by about $30 per month since 2022, officials say.
“Our rates were too low to support the maintenance and the work that we have to do on our lines,” Rawlins City Manager Tom Sarvey said.
“A lot of these grants or loans require that you show community buy-in,” Rawlins spokesperson Mira Miller said. “So you can’t apply for these things if you can’t show that you are charging your customers a fair rate.”
Rawlins — because it’s been in emergency mode for the past two years — is confident about the security of its state-administered ARPA funding so far, according to officials. But many other towns with pressing water system improvement needs aren’t so sure.
Many small towns, even those that clearly qualify for federal grants, struggle to complete engineering and other required planning in the arduous process due to a basic lack of resources and expertise, Wyoming Association of Municipalities Member Services Manager Justin Schilling said.
“Municipal government, it’s a constant rotation of people, so they might not have been aware how urgent [completing grant requirements] was,” Schilling said. “So, we had a bunch of these small communities that got a lifeline tossed to them, but because of engineering delays, the state’s got to pull it back and slide it to shovel-ready projects so that it doesn’t just go back to the feds.”
State officials, in their August webinar with ARPA recipients in the state, fielded about a dozen questions from concerned community leaders.
“I know the process has been cumbersome,” State Loan and Investments Grants and Loans Manager Beth Blackwell told attendees, adding that state officials knew all along that the ARPA requirements were going to be a major challenge for many small, resource-strapped towns to meet. “My staff is working extremely hard, and it’s just, we’ve got to make sure that at the end of the day, the state’s not on the hook to paying these funds back.”
In Lingle, without the ARPA grant, there’s no alternative plan in the works to fund the wastewater system upgrades, Mayor Foster said.
Typical Wyoming problem. Don’t tax me. I want federal “free” money.
The story on the Rawlins water issue should look closer at the existing resources available to Rawlins right now! Could $10 million dollars help that situation? A simple search of the city finances yields coffee cans far in excess of $10 million.
Quoted in the story about water rates… “So you can’t apply for these things if you can’t show that you are charging your customers a fair rate.”
But if you examine the city financial audit for the most recent year, FY 2023, you will find that the city has revenue in excess of expenditure that increased the governmental fund balances $2.4 million dollars and the total governmental fund balances were at $28.83 million. The $28.83 million total governmental funds balance represents an amount that is 2.25 years of expenditures in the funds balance. (total government funds balance divided by total government
funds expenditures… ($28,893,170/412,800,552) Found on page 27 of the pdf file or, page 22 of the report. http://www.rawlinswy.gov/DocumentCenter/View/17893/City-of-Rawlins—Financial-Statements-and-Single-Audit-Report-2023—FINAL?bidId= )
Can the city really say that they are not charging a fair rate when it appears that they are carrying more than 2 years of expenses in their fund balances? A city budget is mainly for maintenance of city systems. 100 year old wooden pipes have long been common knowledge in Rawlins. The SLIB board has provided a good amount of money the water infrastructure for Rawlins in the past when emergency situations have arisen.
This is a situation that the residents of Rawlins may have to hold their city leaders accountable. They did not maintain and improve systems as they were banking dollars in governmental funds accounts. They should actively addressing maintenance of known issues and using the resources available to them to address these issues. Could they spend $ 10 million to repair the water system and still have over a years’ worth of expenses stored in their funds accounts? Sure, they can. Can they competently plan the expenditures for big system costs that were known to be coming due? Perhaps not. The residents will have to make changes to the persons accountable for letting situations get out of hand when there was State and Federal monies available and a significant local fund balance also available.
This is a common situation in Wyoming where taxation is used to bolster funds but not be employed in the maintenance of systems essential to the residents. The State legislature should be auditing cities that maintain high fund balances relative to revenue and expenditures. They have a constitutional duty to do so in Article 4, section 14 of our Wyoming constitution. The Governor has provided a grants office. The legislature funds SLIB to handle large emergencies and large expensive buildings and equipment for towns, cities and counties.
Rawlins is looking like the Flint, Michigan equivalent in Wyoming. It is time for the audit. It is time for the accountability.
Good morning!
““A lot of these grants or loans require that you show community buy-in,” Rawlins spokesperson Mira Miller said. “So you can’t apply for these things if you can’t show that you are charging your customers a fair rate.””
My fellow Americans and neighbors I would highly encourage you ALL to contact your neighbor in Rawlins and ask them how much they liked their “buy-in” and fair rates in and by the “Democracy” exhibited… Of course this situation/issue just did not flourish overnight, the weekend, months but DECADES to happen…
Neighbors may I highly recommend that you take the time to do some very important personal research especially for those who are having water and sewer issues?
First: Look into the 1921 Water Pact Act, Second: The International Private Property Maintenance Code… With that done come visit Rawlins (Rawtown as I like to call it) you’ll notice at the West end entrance has a new multimillion dollar business just opened for business I believe in November of 2023 and another multimillion dollar franchise at the East end entrance… Is opportunity in the hands of the knowledgeable and patient it appears or is negligence fulfilled at the proper time? Moreover does it mean for those who do not get the resources they lose their municipal corporate status and I would assume go into a sort of bankruptcy status? Besides and just as important who is minding the “water valve”/ water pressure release?
In Rawtown the majority of the residents work or worked in the hydrocarbon industry and I would assume are very, very familiar with what high pressure pipelines are and how is it this issue went unnoticed for so long? Especially when it was, did and will have a direct affect on their personal livelihood and household living?
WYOFILE I truly appreciate your exercising of our First Amendment and how delicate the article is written and I very am looking forward to follow up articles and how Democracy will be working through these delicate and direct life changes issues. I just can not seem to understand what happened or happening to the the Republic of “We the people” but I feel confident with your very talented staff and follow up articles we will get glimpses… Semper Fi!
A direct quote from a small town mayor, “we don’t have the intellectual capability” when he was referring to his administrative staff. That’s a sad comment. Why not, because you failed to hire city employees that have the experience to do the job. Infrastructure that should have had maintenance performed on a scheduled basis, ignored until problems can no longer be ignored. Geez, let’s not raise usage rates that can and should support the towns infrastructure. It’s been way too convenient for local governments to get “free” money in the way of grants to compensate for their poor management practices. Everybody wants first class services, but nobody wants to pay a fair share. What are you people going to do when/if property taxes are lowered? You can’t meet your operational costs now, how you going to do so with less $$? Whose “free” money will you turn to next.
BJ. I am sure all these bodies the town hired have college educations vs good old common sense. The college educated usually sit around marking off days to retirement. Plus throw in fact that someone’s son/daughter/inlaw/shirt tail relatives were hire to fill the spot. Thus you get staffed with warm bodies drawing pay check rather than get er done people.
Part of this issue rests with the local municipalities. It’s my understanding the last water rate increase for Rawlins prior to the emergency issue in 2022 was 2009. Nobody likes increased rates, but any system requires ongoing maintenance and improvement. Years of excessively low rates – not the climate change mantra – is a significant part of the issue. We elect people to make the hard decisions and when you duck the issue, you end up with an obsolete water system. It’s like buying a care an never changing the oil – or using a 100 year old wood pipe water system without allocating funds for maintenance.
Residents complain about the aging water structure, but resist paying anything to upgrade it.
Ironically, Wyoming has their hands out for federal money to fix their systems. Those dollars are sought from the feds they abhor.
Just think of all the money wasted the last 25 years trying to bring “democracy” to Iraq/afghanistan and now billions wasted on “saving” Ukraine. We could have used all that money right here in USA instead of enriching the Cheney’s Biden Pelosi’s and multitudes of others.
Small townism can foil many fed to local funding pipelines.
The state of WY needs to support its small towns that lack the ability to meet the federal requirements tied to infrastructure investments.
Federal tax dollars that are allocated to solve real infrastructure problems and come with requirements shouldn’t be diverted to towns with greater engineering capability just to keep the federal subsidy. The goal is to fix the problem.
Right on!
If “…state Loan and Investments Grants and Loans Manager Beth Blackwell [said] ….. state officials knew all along that the ARPA requirements were going to be a major challenge for many small, resource-strapped towns to meet,” WHY didn’t the state provide funds for engineering and project management so these 59 or so needy small towns could take advantage of this generous ‘federal overreach?’
Wyoming government is a strange piece of work sometimes.
I’m curious why the State didn’t act on its anticipation and knowledge that small towns don’t have the infrastructure to do the paperwork and engineering required to receive grant funds to upgrade their utilities. Bleizeffer’s piece ends with, “State Loan and Investments Grants and Loans Manager Beth Blackwell told attendees, …that state officials knew all along that the ARPA requirements were going to be a major challenge for many small, resource-strapped towns to meet.”
So where was, and is, State help? How hard would it have been for the Legislature to direct a couple million dollars to support small towns engineering efforts? The ROI (return on investment) here would have been huge.
This is more evidence that the Legislature is having a really rough time paying attention to the needs of their constituents. Ask your State reps what they did for you to smooth this process. If they can’t give a straight answer, elect someone else who will.
Well put, Mr. Olson, and my sentiments exactly!
Jeffery. Simply put. Elected politicians don’t think past the lobbyist in front of them. Politicians/state dept heads just sit and wait for next “crisis” to come up to act. Than wring hands and cry we don’t have the funds so we need increased fees & taxes. D. C cry is billions for Ukraine/homeless industrial complex/ illegal migrant complex. But nothing for citizens.
It is hard to let Larry have the last cynical word on the topic.
Wyo Citizens should have a hard look at the quality of legislators they elect to serve their needs. As an administrator, I imagine State Loan and Investments Grants and Loans Manager Beth Blackwell had several conversations with legislative leaders on this topic. Still, the political winds of the last session did not focus on what was ultimately needed. It is much easier to rail against trans people, deride the Federal government, and blame it all on Biden! I mean really, look at the price of eggs, or the border with Mexico, but whatever you do, do not look at ways to maintain your own backyard or your water supply.
Somehow, I can`t help but think that if Wy went to the Feds, hat in hand, and sincerely admitted they goofed up and got carried away on a Q-inspired lark, an extension would be granted. After all, the Federal money was appropriated to get the work done, not to play politics or win favors.
You will find the appropriation in https://wyoleg.gov/2024/Enroll/HB0001.pdf page It is on Page 4 of the budget in the governor’s office in footnote 5…
“5. Of this general fund appropriation, eight hundred thousand dollars
($800,000.00) is appropriated to provide matching funds for the building
resilient infrastructure and communities federal grant program. This
appropriation shall not be transferred or expended for any other purpose.”
The appropriation resulted in the creation of this office in the state budget division.
https://sbd.wyo.gov/grants/grant-assistance-program
I think that the Governor and the Congressional delegation have been working this problem. And the legislature funded it. Then we have agencies such as OSLI, WBC and many other resources that have been funded by the legislature for years.
The situation you are talking about is at the local level. Local leaders have to have the commitment to work the grant issues. They also have to become more transparent when working with their constituents. Often times, there are unrecognized resources within these town. This should not be just a conversation between the state and the city/town, but rather a robust conversation within the town.