"The soonest that we could do the study just happened to coincide closely with the date that the state was dealing with the incentive application from West Liberty Foods," Wheelwright said. "The wetlands issue has always been one that we've known needed to be dealt with and addressed. I don't think anyone ever had any idea that the wetlands issue would be as extensive as it ended up being reported."

The report, Wheelwright said, pointed to a strong likelihood that the wetlands could be the result of irrigation practices, but still might be regulatory wetlands as defined under the Clean Water Act. Wheelwright said mitigation efforts would take too long under the company's timeline to build the new plant.

The business park, bordered by I-15 on the west and U.S. 89 on the east, is roughly 625 acres with a building area of about 400 acres. Smaller businesses already exist in the park.

Edwards said everyone would have liked to have known about the wetlands much earlier.

"It's just unfortunate that the timing happened the way it did," Edwards said. "One of the challenges of wetlands is that many times you have to wait for the appearance of plant species, and they don't appear until the spring. So even if this had been started last fall we probably wouldn't have even known until now for sure whether there was an actual wetlands."

Jason Perry, executive director of GOED, said in an e-mail to the Deseret Morning News that West Liberty Foods has 30 days to accept the state's incentive offer and 90 days to finalize a contract. Those deadlines could be extended while the company searches for another site. The $2 million incentive still applies regardless of where the company locates.

"When a company chooses not to accept an offer," Perry said, "the state will continue to review economic development initiatives with other qualified companies."

The incentives were conditioned on West Liberty keeping its operations in Utah for a minimum of 10 years, offering health insurance to its employees and paying wages of at least 125 percent of the county median wage.

The tax incentive works as a rebate. West Liberty can receive up to a 30 percent annual rebate in what it pays in state taxes over a 10-year period for a maximum of $2 million. If the company pays no taxes, no rebate is given.

At the time of the announcement, Nevin Limburg, Pleasant View city administrator, said West Liberty Foods would have been the largest private employer in the city of 6,500 people.

Limburg resigned from his position after the state offered West Liberty the incentives. Wheelwright said Limburg's departure was a mutual decision made by Limburg and the city and not the result of the wetland findings.

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E-mail: danderton@desnews.com