Grants Pass faces major hurdle; in Medford, officials were banking on nearly $35 million in FEMA money to improve the drinking-water system

Some $225 million is in limbo for communities across Oregon after the Trump administration balked at paying federal grants that include costs for a day care center, a water treatment plant and hospital upgrades.

Nearly three dozen projects in Oregon are on the chopping block for money from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Federal Emergency Management Agency. Federal officials effectively halted the grants and local leaders worry the money will never arrive in Oregon.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, working with billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, stopped more than 400 grants nationwide related to climate and environmental justice across various programs, claiming the cuts would “rein in wasteful federal spending.” Some $85 million in remaining balances for nine grants in Oregon have been impacted, according to information obtained by Heatmap, a climate online publication.

FEMA also canceled its building resilient infrastructure and communities program, known as BRIC, and the grant money associated with it. That includes $140 million for 26 projects throughout Oregon, according to the Oregon Department of Emergency Management.

EPA officials this week did not provide a comment about the cuts to The Oregonian/OregonLive and FEMA officials provided a statement issued April 4 that said the BRIC program “was yet another example of a wasteful and ineffective FEMA program.”

All seven members of Oregon’s Democratic congressional delegation have blasted the cuts. In a letter this week, they called for FEMA funding to be restored and argued that ending the program “is not only wasteful and makes us less safe, but will make our communities bear a higher cost for repairs and recovery when disaster inevitably strikes.”

The biggest hit to Oregon is in Grants Pass, where local officials have been planning to build a new water treatment plant for more than a decade. Officials had been counting on a $50 million FEMA grant to cover a large chunk of the $135 million project, said Public Works Director Jason Canady.

Officials applied for grant funding in 2022, he said, and received notice that the project was selected in September 2023, but it had not yet been officially approved before the program was eliminated.

Canady said officials are “very scared” about how they will replace the $50 million, which leaves a “huge gap.”

“I don’t know if we are going to be able to fully fund the project without this grant,” he said. “It’s going to be a challenge.”

The current water treatment plant, which is located next to the Rogue River in southern Oregon, was built in the 1930s. It’s not only vulnerable to failing during an earthquake, he said, but it also sits within a 500-year floodplain. The project was going to build a new plant about half a mile inland.

“In a large-scale flooding event, the entire water plant would be inundated,” he said.

Canady said he believes FEMA needs some streamlining, but this is not the right way to go about it.

“We are frustrated. … It’s unfortunate that communities are going to pay,” he said. “It’s unfortunate that the scrapping of the entire program is the way to fix the problem.”

Along the Oregon coast, officials hope to improve hospital facilities and had been expecting a $13.9 million FEMA grant, according to a federal database. Columbia Memorial Hospital in Astoria wanted to upgrade its facilities and build a shelter where patients could continue receiving medical care during a natural disaster. The facility would also provide shelter for more than 1,900 people, according to an April 9 letter from Oregon’s Democratic delegation sent to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, urging her to reverse the cuts.

“The abrupt termination of this program is not only counterproductive to the goals of disaster risk reduction, but also undermines the commitment made by Congress to mitigate the devasting impacts of climate chaos,” Oregon’s delegation wrote.

The total preliminary construction budget for the project is between $225 million to $250 million, said Sarah Bello, a spokesperson for Columbia Memorial Hospital. The hospital, she said, is disappointed the grant was canceled.

“We have been meeting with the Office of Emergency Management, Clatsop County Emergency Management and as a project team to understand the impacts this will have to the project,” she said in a brief statement.

In Medford, officials were banking on nearly $35 million in FEMA money to improve the drinking-water system. The project, estimated to cost $60 million, had been selected by federal officials but was awaiting formal approval, said Brad Taylor, general manager for Medford Water.

The project would involve critical infrastructure work that links the water supply source and its distribution system and included building a dam. Taylor said Medford Water also provides water to surrounding jurisdictions, such as the cities of Eagle Point, Central Point, Jacksonville, Talent and Phoenix.

“Ultimately, this region is impacted by not being able to move these projects forward,” he said.

Taylor said officials don’t yet know how they will proceed, but additional rate increases might be on the table for customers.

In the Columbia River Gorge, officials are also unsure about next steps after nearly $20 million in grant funding from the EPA got suspended.

Officials have been trying since 2022 to build a large child care facility in an area they say needs more day care programs. They applied for an EPA grant, hoping to renovate a middle school built in 1954 into the Columbia Gorge Early Learning & Resilience Center for up to 200 kids. The building in The Dalles would also serve as a community center and would help expand the Columbia Gorge Community Service District’s career and technical education programs.

Officials learned in December that they’d won money from the grant, which is focused on helping “transform disadvantaged communities across the United States into healthy, climate resilient and thriving communities for their current and future residents,” according to EPA grant solicitation records.

But a few months later, around March 10, officials went to a government website to submit a claim for the project and noticed the grant allocation said “Suspended,” said Dana Pedersen, superintendent for the Columbia Gorge Education Service District, one of two local organizations that collectively applied for the grant.

Officials have not been officially notified about the status of the grant, Pedersen said, and attempts to seek clarity from the EPA have been unsuccessful. Pedersen said it’s unclear if the grant is halted permanently of if it’s under evaluation, with the potential to be restored at an unknown date. Pedersen said officials have a meeting at the end this month with an EPA officer and she was told information would be available then.

“To think that this funding is held up or eliminated in a vague effort to eliminate ’waste, fraud and abuse’ of the federal budget couldn’t be further from the reality of the importance this project represents to the growth of our rural community,” Kenneth Lawson, president of the Columbia Gorge Community College, the other grant recipient, said in an email.

Lawson said officials in the region have often struggled to attract workforce talent because of high living costs and the need for more early learning programs, and the grant was going to help tackle those issues.

“We worked hard to make sure we met the grant requirements and were excited about how this project could help fill the gap in unmet childcare needs,” he said.

The project was expected to break ground late this summer or early fall. Officials had signed a contract to deliver outcomes for the grant, Lawson said, and they took the “obligation seriously.”

“We hope and expect the government to honor its commitments and promises seriously, as well,” he said.

Officials now plan to seek money from a state grant program administered by Business Oregon, although access to the money has typically been highly competitive.

“We will likely have a difficult time finding the funding to make this project a reality without” the federal money, Lawson said.

Gov. Tina Kotek said families in the Columbia River Gorge were counting on the child care center, especially given the importance of access to early learning programs and the difference they make in students’ education later in life.

“With the flick of a pen, President Trump has robbed Oregon students of this opportunity,” Kotek said in an email. “I am frustrated, and I am resolved to keep pushing to do everything we can here in Oregon to make sure our youngest learners have the best chance to succeed, despite the chaos coming from Washington, D.C.”

Federal grants in jeopardy:

• Grants Pass Water Treatment Plant Relocation, $50 million, FEMA
• Medford Water Distribution System, $34.8 million, FEMA
• Columbia Gorge Education Service District, $20 million, EPA
• Building a Resilient and Responsive Grand Ronde Community, $19.9 million, EPA
• Oregon State Military management costs, $19.7 million, FEMA
• Lane County Transformation for Resiliency Through Equity and Engagement, $19.6 million, EPA
• Chiloquin Community Resilience Hub and Municipal Center, $ 16.3 million, EPA
• Clatsop County Tsunami Earthquake Astoria Hospital, $13.9 million, FEMA
• Willamette Partnership, $6.9 million, EPA
• City of Port Orford Water Resilience Improvements, $6.6 million, FEMA
• Lane County Mapleton Water Storage, $2.7 million, FEMA
• Lane County Alderwood Looped Power Transmission to Increase Reliability and Community Resilience, $2.7 million, FEMA
• City of Portland Tree Planting for Heat Mitigation, $2 million, FEMA
• Lane County Blachly Lane Amy Hill Overhead to Underground, $1.5 million, FEMA
• Oregon Military Department management costs, $1.3 million, FEMA
• 20 other grants from FEMA and EPA total $7.5 million, including a project slated for Gresham’s Rockwood neighborhood

Brad Schmidt contributed to this report.