GREEN RIVER - Settlers moving to Wyoming in the 1800s labored for generations to turn Eden Valley, located on the edge of the Red Desert in southwest Wyoming, into productive agricultural lands.

Eden Valley and Farson residents were adamant Tuesday about keeping that agricultural and rural heritage intact in the face of ever-increasing energy development in the lucrative Jonah and Pinedale Anticline gas fields to the north.

Residents - speaking at the Sweetwater County Commission's public hearing Tuesday on a proposal to locate a 125-worker "man camp" in downtown Farson - told the board the facility would threaten the small town's agricultural legacy and could ruin the "rural character" of the area over time.

"We value something you might not see as you drive by Farson … More than the economic gains that would come with a man camp, we value our rural and ag lifestyle in Eden Valley," said resident Marsha Hensley.

"The man camp represents … a foot in the door for unwanted change," she told commissioners.

"Don't sacrifice our agricultural/rural inheritance," Hensley said. "If you approve this, the rural and ag community will have lost far more than might have been temporarily gained (with the man camp)."

Residents of the tiny ranching town in northern Sweetwater County were on hand to voice their displeasure over the man camp proposal by a Houston-based company that says it specializes in building clean, modern and temporary modular facilities.

Porta-Kamp Executive Vice President Gary Herd told commissioners the company was proposing to build the man camp on private property near Farson's four-corner downtown area. The camp would house employees of the BE&K construction company, which has been contracted to build a compressor station for a planned expansion of the Jonah gas gathering system. The system gathers and transports natural gas produced in the field to processing plants back East.

Herd said the camp would house up to 125 workers and their families. Drugs and alcohol would not be allowed in the facility, and workers would be bused back and forth to reduce traffic, according to company plans.

Officials involved in the project said the man camp would have taken from 30 to 45 days to assemble and would have been in use from eight months to a year. The self-contained, secure facility was chosen for its location near State Highway 28 and U.S. Highway 191, and its proximity to the project site.

Missed opportunity?

Members of Sweetwater County's Planning and Zoning Board met Aug. 28, however, and decided to recommend denial of the company's conditional-use permit application. That recommendation was forwarded to the county commission for consideration Tuesday.

Planning commission members expressed concerns about the camp's location, about the old wastewater and sewer system that would be used by the camp, and about water pressure and water availability.

Residents worried the man camp would strain the town's infrastructure and would tax the capabilities of the town's volunteer ambulance and fire department services, and of its health care facilities.

But longtime Farson resident Dave Hanks wondered if the unincorporated town wasn't missing an "opportunity" to have a developer help pay for some much-needed improvements to the community's infrastructure services, particularly sewer and water.

"We need improvements up there, there's no doubt … and we need to take advantage of opportunities when they come along, and now is the time to do that," he said.

"There's long-term benefits to the community if they upgrade (water and sewer services)," he said. "This is an opportunity to do something now with a willing partner. Some issues are not going to improve unless somebody like (the company) addresses them for us."

Hanks also said most of the town's facilities are already being affected by the natural gas boom, which has led to lots of new ranch development around Eden Valley.

"I do believe … containing (the influx of new people) in a man camp is a better option that spreading out (development) all over the area," he said.

Commissioner Wally Johnson noted that historically, the commission has approved most man camp permit requests.

"We didn't want to chance stopping development in the county," he said. "But the problem I have with this is location. The other (man camps), I think, had minimal impacts to the county."

Southwest Wyoming bureau reporter Jeff Gearino can be reached at 307-875-5359 or at gearino@tribcsp.com.