Rural water crisis: Mapleton Water District loses federal grants to aid aging infrastructure

People who live in the rural Lane County community of Mapleton sometimes struggle to access their water supply, forced to wait during outages until service returns to an aging system.

The Mapleton Water District serves the unincorporated community of about 530 people, piping water to 262 households or businesses. In the last two weeks, the water district has lost two federal grants, casualties of the Trump administration’s efforts to trim wasteful spending. For Mapleton Water District, those grants would have provided more than $3.5 million in federal funding for an additional storage tank and replacements for a portion of the system’s 70-year-old water lines. 

The cancelled grants leave Mapleton Water District officials scrambling to find options and facing the prospect of constantly patching up its network of pipes when they break. For Art Donnelly, vice-chair of the district’s board, the setback is frustrating, given that the organization in recent years installed a $3.5 million water treatment plant. That plant alone is not the solution. 

“Here’s the problem: you could have aliens in the spaceship treating your water with 24th-century technology,” he said. “And it wouldn’t make a bit of difference if you’re still pushing that water out through 75-year-old distribution lines.”

The Trump administration cancelled two grants that were previously awarded for infrastructure projects in the water district, located about 46 miles west of Eugene.

One would have provided $2.75 million in federal funding through a Federal Emergency Management Agency’s grant program called Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC). 

With matching state funding, the district would have received slightly more than $3 million for another 300,000-gallon water storage tank. The district’s water storage should be about 900,000 gallons and it’s currently at just 600,000 gallons, Donnelly said. 

A separate cancelled federal grant would have provided $800,000 for water line replacements. Even with that money in hand, the water district would face challenges, Donnelly said. Its master plan calls for $24 million in upgrades, including replacing much of its water line.

The water district started in 1951 and its aging infrastructure reflects similar challenges in rural American communities. Donnelly estimates that at least 80% of the 11.5-mile system of water lines is at least 70-year-old asbestos concrete pipe. 

That means the current system is fragile and prone to outages.

“Outages mean you don’t have water to flush your toilet,” Donnelly said. “You don’t have water to take a shower. You don’t have water for your kidney dialysis machine. You don’t have water for your infant formula. You don’t have water for your business.”

Donnelly said he’s looking for options, though uncertain of what the future holds. U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, U.S. Rep. Val Hoyle and other Democratic members of Oregon’s congressional delegation have written to FEMA, urging that it reverse the administration’s decision to cancel the BRIC grant program.

Gov. Tina Kotek, asked about the canceled funding in a Tuesday press conference, urged the public to remember where the problem started.

“First, I want to put the blame where the blame should go, which is to the Trump administration,” Kotek said. “I get mad about a whole bunch of things, but when you look at the projects, like the project in Mapleton that was going to be funded by these BRIC grants, these are bipartisan, nonpartisan, community projects that everybody supports. I have not heard one rationale from the Trump administration why they canceled the BRIC grants. I don’t know what we’re going to do for Mapleton, to be very honest.”