Did the people in Sierra Blanca Tx screw up?

This is with respect to the sewage sludge dump situation that they had not too long ago.  To me, this looked like an opportunity, not a liability.  Here's a place that could really use an opportunity, because if there's one thing that town needs is an economic base.  Outside of government, there's nothing there.  It's the county seat and it is close to the border checkpoint.  That's it.

If you google the town and check out the pics that they have, then you will easily see.  I know the town a little having visited there several times.  That's basically what the town looks like.  Old, dilapidated, abandoned buildings, and no businesses.  What a difference it would make to have a thriving business in the area.

The sewage dump was handled wrong, I suspect.  They just wanted to use the place to dump the sewage on the ground.  Instead of doing that, they could have turned it into power and products.

I looked into trying it myself, but that's too big of a risk for me.  If I were to do it, first I would try a pilot project to show that it can be done.  Then, I'd scale it up so that it can take sewage sludge from any place that wanted to use the facility.

One thing that you may be able to make is some building aggregate.  You can use it for improving roads in the area.  That place needs some good roads.  You could use the syngas for energy, or to make ammonia for use in agriculture in the area, or to make energy to sell.  They could convert vehicles to ammonia use and virtually have free fuel.

Looks to me like an opportunity lost.