South Dakota has seen a significant impact from a company based in Illinois, thanks to a deep underground neutrino detector located in the Northern Hills at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead. This detector catches particles fired from almost a thousand miles away from Fermilab in Illinois. The work done on the neutrino experiment in 2022 alone generated more than $270 million in economic impact, created or sustained over 1,500 jobs, and raised total household income in South Dakota by more than $98 million.
The project was a large undertaking that required dozens of individuals to create a space large enough to house the equipment in South Dakota. For example, 800,000 tons of rock had to be moved from a mile underground to the surface and disposed of in the open cut. This involved at least 40 people working on-site in Lead. The presence of people in Lead also led to more tax dollars collected in the city and increased revenue for local businesses.
A study on Fermilab’s impact on South Dakota only included data from 2022, but this impact is expected to continue growing in the future. The LBNF DUNE US project is projected to have an economic impact of about $4.3 billion through fiscal year 2030, sustaining around 2,750 jobs per year on average. These numbers are for the two states combined, but a significant portion of that impact will apply to South Dakota.
Andrew Hime, the Head of Business Transformation at Fermilab, anticipates that the impact will continue to grow through 2030. The collaboration between South Dakota and Illinois in this project is expected to have a lasting and substantial economic impact on the region
