JANUARY 3, 2025|
Photo – Cover of the draft water master plan for Rawlins – Bigfoot99 file photo
The Wyoming Office of State Lands and Investments released its list of relinquished ARPA funds. Two Carbon County entities were forced to return a combined total of over a million dollars to the state.
When the Biden administration created the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021, it set aside $350 billion for states to combat the economic effects of the COVID pandemic. Wyoming received over $1 billion in ARPA funding.
The state legislature created the ARPA Water and Sewer program to distribute money to cities, counties, special districts, and tribal governments for eligible water and wastewater projects. However, the federal funds came with a catch, the money had to be encumbered, or committed to the specified project, before October 1st of this year.
Due to the difficulty of securing contractors in rural Wyoming, many municipalities and organizations were unable to make the October deadline. According to information provided by the University of Colorado Boulder’s Water Desk and WyoFile, 26 entities were forced to return over $14 million to the Wyoming Office of State Lands and Investments.
Here in Carbon County, both the City of Rawlins and South-Central Wyoming Emergency Medical Services, or SCWEMS, together returned roughly $1.6 million.
Speaking to Bigfoot99 in early December, Rawlins City Manager Tom Sarvey explained that the city was unable to encumber the entirety of the ARPA funding in time. Some work was completed before the deadline, but the city must now give $1.5 million back to the state.
According to the Office of State Lands and Investments, the city of Rawlins lost a total of $1,458,208 from two separate grants.
City Manager Sarvey blamed the lack of a city engineer and other projects for missing the October 1st deadline.
All is not lost for Rawlins. On November 13th, the Wyoming Water Development Commission awarded the city $2.8 million to pay for repairs to the water transmission line.
The 30 miles of pipe running between Sage Creek Springs and the water treatment plant are long past their service date, with some sections being over 100 years old. Sarvey said the Water Development Commission grant will help offset the lost ARPA funding.
SWCEMS relinquished its $210,000 ARPA grant. The ambulance service requested money to construct a new station in Hanna, on the corner of School and Adams Streets, where the former elementary school was located. SCWEMS was unable to encumber the money before October 1st.
In Sweetwater County, the town of Wamsutter lost its $695,058 Water Tower Rehabilitation ARPA grant.
Speaking at the September 27th Joint Appropriations Committee Meeting, State Budget Department Director Kevin Hibbard explained that by reclaiming unencumbered ARPA funds, the Wyoming legislature is ensuring that the money remains available for state use, rather than being returned to Washington, D.C.
The relinquished funds were spread among 80 other water and sewer projects around the state, with the town of Green River receiving the most redistributed money, $10.5 million, to replace its Wastewater Treatment Plant.
In Carbon County, Saratoga received an additional $650,000 to complete its water line replacement projects on Spring Avenue and River Street.
The town of Encampment was given an additional $302,000, on top of the $1.4 million ARPA grant it had already received, to complete its wastewater lagoon improvement project.
Dixon received $22,000 of redistributed ARPA funds to complete its own wastewater lagoon improvement project.
