Oregon’s Department of Emergency Management says the Trump administration’s decision to abruptly cancel a hazard mitigation grant program will “significantly impact communities” across the state.
OEM said the loss of the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, or BRIC program, will seriously impede Oregon’s ability to prepare for disasters. Hazard Mitigation Section Manager Stephen Richardson said the state was caught “flat-footed” on April 4 when the BRIC program was unexpectedly cancelled.
“Without this funding, a lot of requirements for states to prepare for disasters are becoming unfunded mandates essentially because smaller communities and counties just can’t support those,” Richardson said.
In terms of money, the state will lose a federal share of $140 million. Also lost are local matching funds of $90 million and $8 million in “sunk costs,” which are project expenditures that have already been made and cannot be recovered.
BRIC grant funding was pulled from eight Oregon projects with sunk costs. One is Astoria’s Columbia Memorial Hospital which won, and then lost, $14 million in BRIC funding to integrate a Tsunami Vertical Evacuation Refuge Structure into the hospital’s expansion.
Elsewhere, the City of Grants Pass lost $50 million in BRIC funding and $5 million in sunk costs for a Water Treatment Plant Relocation Project. The project aimed to relocate the water treatment plant outside the special flood hazard area to prevent system failure during a flooding event.
And in Lane County, the Mapleton Water District lost a $2.7 million BRIC grant to purchase a 300,000-gallon water storage tank and replace aging and brittle water lines.
The BRIC program is administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency or FEMA.
Richardson said all the states in Region 10, which include Alaska, Washington, Idaho and Oregon, are in unison telling FEMA that the BRIC program is needed.
