Natural Soda Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Natural Resources USA Corporation has operated in Rio Blanco County for more than 20 years. Natural Soda Inc., is the second largest producer of sodium bicarbonate, commonly known as baking soda, in North America, supplying pure natural sodium bicarbonate to the food, pharmaceutical, industrial and animal feed markets from its processing facility in the Piceance Creek Basin. Natural Soda Inc., held an open house last week, where chairman and CEO Bill Gunn greeted more than 40 people, including county commissioners, town trustees and chamber of commerce members and director of manufacturing Robert Warneke gave a tour of the facility. Natural Soda has 39 onsite employees and plan to add more jobs with the expansion of it’s facility, including a new boiler . The company has also applied for a Research Development and Demonstration (RD&D) lease from the Bureau of Land Management and plan to test their patented technology on the oil shale RD&D lease.