Conservation district outlines Goose Creek work and ACME Power Plant cleanup timeline

Carrie Roboshevsky, district manager for the Sheridan County Conservation District, briefed the council on the district’s programs and recent work on water quality and environmental cleanup.

Roboshevsky described long-running monitoring in the Goose Creek watershed and said the district and city jointly applied for USDA National Water Quality Initiative funds, reporting that roughly "$1,200,000 in USDA funds" was earmarked for sub-watershed projects tied to irrigation, fencing, invasive-grass treatment and runoff reduction.

She updated the council on the ACME Power Plant cleanup, saying the district had been awarded "over 1,000,000 dollars in federal grant funds" for asbestos abatement and soil remediation. Roboshevsky said challenges identified during partial-demolition planning led to an authorization to treat the building basement as an in-place landfill so demolition and soil work can proceed together, and that the building demolition and hot-spot soil cleanup were scheduled for completion this summer.

Roboshevsky also described fire-recovery work funded in part with local and federal grants that pays for mitigation projects, reservoir and intake cleanouts and the purchase and deployment of turbidity sensors near the City's intake. She emphasized the district’s use of GPET funds to match federal grants and to fund staff time for grant applications and project administration.

Councilors thanked the district for its work and asked technical questions about capping materials and timeline; Roboshevsky said the cap would likely be vegetated and that engineering decisions remained but that authorizations are in place to proceed.

No formal council action was requested at the conclusion of the briefing.