How a company states away contributes to South Dakota’s economy

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - A company based in Illinois has a multi-million dollar impact on South Dakota, thanks to a deep underground neutrino detector.

In the Northern Hills, deep underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, prep work is being done to house a neutrino detector that will catch particles fired from almost a thousand miles away, from Fermilab in Illinois.

In 2022 alone, the work done on the neutrino experiment generated more than $270 million in economic impact, created or sustained over 1,500 jobs, and raised the total household income in South Dakota by more than $98 million.

“Again it’s a point-in-time measurement during the fiscal year so it’s all the activities that occurred in the fiscal year 2022 time period associated with the LBNF construction project as well as like I said the on-site staff,” said Andrew Hime the Head of Business Transformation at Fermilab.

The project is no small undertaking, it requires the work of dozens of individuals to create a space large enough to house the equipment in South Dakota.

“We moved 800,000 tons of rock from a mile underground to the surface and disposed of it in the open cut. So we had a subcontractor who did that, at any time they had at least 40 people here on site, so that’s people here in Lead,” said Ron Ray the Interim LBNF/DUNE Project Manager for DUNE U.S.

People living in Lead also means more tax dollars collected in the city and more revenue for local businesses.

A study that determined Fermilab’s impact on the Mount Rushmore state only included numbers from 2022. That impact is expected to continue to grow into the future.

“LBNF Dune US project projected through fiscal year 30 right now is expected to have an economic impact of about $4.3 billion and on average I believe it’s sustaining around 2,750 jobs per year,” said Hime.

Hime says he anticipates the impact will continue to grow through 2030. Although those numbers are for the two states combined, much of that figure will apply to South Dakota.

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