Residents challenge state-approved incinerator in front of Tetons.

Teton County residents have opened an additional front in their fight with Wyoming officials regarding development of state school trust land near Teton Village, this time challenging the approval of a commercial incinerator that opponents claim poses a grave health, fire and economic risk to locals.

Wyoming has permitted the tree-service company Arbor Works to operate an “air curtain burner” on a parcel of state land near the resort village and southern boundary of Grand Teton National Park. Two community organizations say the operation is a health and fire hazard that violates state and federal rules, including elements of the federal Clean Air Act.

Operating the burner will create “considerable health and fire risk if the machine is used as the permit currently allows,” Jenny Fitzgerald, executive director of the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, wrote WyoFile in an email. “There is no enforceable regulation of how this machine is operated and the fire risk and air quality can have significant to life changing effects on our community, if used as permitted.”

The Alliance and The Teton Village Association have appealed the permit Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality issued to Arbor Works and the case is scheduled to be argued in a quasi-judicial hearing before the state’s Environmental Quality Council from Oct. 23-25.

An air curtain burner blows air through an incinerator or firebox to reduce pollutants that would be emitted if the flames were not fanned. The burner is an “open top box,” according to the complaint filed by the two groups.

DEQ failed to issue a legal and enforceable permit, the appeal claims. It alleges the agency didn’t ensure the operation would be safe and approved the permit without analyzing the proper data.

It further asserts DEQ failed to address public comments or ensure the burner would be located as required by the Wyoming Board of Land Commissioners who authorized development of the school land.

Trust, but regulate

“[We] would like to trust the good faith of the owners and staff of Arbor Works, who are all well respected community members,” the Alliance’s Fitzgerald wrote WyoFile. Yet, “we recognize they are human and small errors in the unregulated operation can have very detrimental effects to Teton Village and surrounding neighborhoods.”

There are no limits as to when the burner could operate, the groups say, including when high winds blow.

Arbor Works declined to comment to WyoFile about the issue.

The DEQ’s permit is not enforceable — meaning there are no penalties or other recourse available to the state or residents if the incinerator departs from the agreed terms — and missing data precluded the agency from making a “rational permitting decision,” the appeal claims. The DEQ permit doesn’t reflect the conditions land commissioners imposed on Arbor Works, the groups say, and the DEQ didn’t give the public a proper opportunity to comment and brushed off concerns that were expressed.

Attorneys Eric Waeckerlin and Affie Ellis represent the two Teton community groups.

The burner will degrade air quality, views of the natural surroundings, and will pose a significant fire risk, “all of which present imminent threats to the environment,” the Conservation Alliance states in the appeal. The Village association repeats those claims, saying the effects also threaten resort area business.

The incinerator is only one development Teton County residents are contesting on the Teton Village school section. The Teton County government wants to inspect a glamping development for compliance with local construction codes, but Wyoming sued the county to block those inspections. Teton county claims the State Board of Land Commissioners wrongly approved the tent-like domes. The case is now in front of the Wyoming Supreme Court .

The overarching issue is the weight local-government regulations and local-resident voices carry in such state decisions, a concern once centered in Teton County but increasingly raised statewide as Sen. Mike Gierau (D-Jackson) warned in 2022.

“This problem is going to come to your door,” he said when legislators targeted wealthy Teton County as a place to maximize income from school trust land. “[The Office of State Lands and Investments] is going to be faced with folks coming in wanting to do leases in front of grazing permits, in front of ranch operations.”

Coming soon near you?

Gierau’s prediction has come true in Casper, for example, where residents were surprised and upset to learn that land commissioners approved a gravel mine on school trust land near their homes.

The public outcry prompted a legislative committee last week to set aside a draft bill that would have made it easier to fast track even more such operations.

Residents in other counties also have been heard. The land commissioners — Gov. Mark Gordon, Secretary of State Chuck Gray, Treasurer Curt Meier, Auditor Kristi Racines and Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder — in April rejected the proposed and unpopular Columbus Peak land exchange near Dayton.

The fight over the incinerator and glamping installation continues with yet another group — Citizens for the Responsible Use of State Lands — challenging the tent-hotel in Teton County’s district court. Protect our Waters Jackson Hole is also appealing a DEQ decision regarding sewage disposal at the glamping site.

Yet Teton County’s commission chair Luther Propst hopes state politicians are changing lanes.

Land commissioners voted 5-0, Thursday to prevent development on another 640 acre school section in Teton County — this one south of Wilson on Munger Mountain .

Teton County will lease it from the state for 35 years for wildlife conservation and recreation and pay $75,000 annually. Three local groups — the Jackson Hole Land Trust, Friends of Pathways and Friends of Munger Mountain — organized and lobbied for the relatively novel type of lease.

Propst hailed the “gratifying” Munger Mountain vote as a new page in state-county relations.

“It shows the state and county can work together to benefit public education, wildlife and recreational access in Teton County,” he said. “It pioneers a good example of how cooperation between the state and county benefits everyone.”

The post Residents challenge state-approved incinerator in front of Tetons. appeared first on WyoFile .