Douglas County Commissioners have signed off on a $1.3 million state grant aimed to help the City of Oakland repair its water supply system following the 2020 Archie Creek Fire.
At the Oct. 8 meeting, Board Chair Tim Freeman said the Community Development Block Grant for Disaster Recovery will help restore the water treatment plant and distribution system to pre-disaster levels.
“The sewer plant itself wasn't damaged. It’s the runoff that's coming through the sewer plant that's damaging the inside of the plant," Freeman said. "As you can imagine, if the water all the way from the Archie Creek fire to Oakland is still dirty when it gets to Oakland … this is an attempt to help upgrade that system to deal with what's gonna be runoff from that fire for, you know, decades.”
Freeman said Glide and Canyonville have had to upgrade their water systems as well, also because of degraded source water after the 2020 fire.
Oregon's Planning, Infrastructure, and Economic Revitalization, or PIER program, grant uses Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds to help communities recover from the 2020 Labor Day wildfires.
