Feds provide $8 million to upgrade La Pine sewer system

(Update: Adding city official comments)

Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., announced Wednesday more than $8 million in new federal rural development funding for La Pine to upgrade its wastewater system.

La Pine Public Works Manager Jake Obrist said the city has been working to secure the funding since June 2016. He and others met in Salem to discuss what loans and grants were available.

The senators said the $5 million loan and $3.7 million grant from the Agriculture Department will help La Pine reduce construction costs as part of a project responding to public health concerns about residential wells in the town’s Cagle and Glenwood Acres subdivisions.

“These resources are a must for residents and businesses in La Pine to keep user rates affordable and address crucial drinking water issues,” Wyden said. “I am gratified that these needs of rural Oregonians will be addressed.”

“Investments like this in water infrastructure create economic opportunity while also providing clean water and healthy systems for rural Oregon,” Merkley said. “I will continue using my position as ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Agriculture Subcommittee to fight for the USDA funding that serves our rural communities.”

Obrist said, “It’s going to be a lot nicer system. “It’s going to be a system that’s going to thrive into the future, really sets La Pine up for potential growth into the future and is just overall a great approach to keep our system in La Pine running.”

The expansion of La Pine’s municipal wastewater into the Cagle and Glenwood Acres subdivisions come in response to residential wells in those neighborhoods showing elevated nitrate levels from residential septic systems seeping into the groundwater.

The entire USDA announcement is here.