WASHINGTON, D.C.-Over $100 million in federal investments will fund community-initiated projects across the state, including Eastern Oregon in fiscal year 2026.
The last of the 2026 fiscal year appropriations packages recently made it through Congress, and Oregon Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden announced that the two packages contain a total of $102,692,000 in funding for projects in Oregon.
“Community-initiated projects are rooted in the fact that no one knows the unique needs of communities across Oregon like the folks living and working in them,” said Sen. Merkley. “The communities identified top projects, and we fought for them.”
54 projects that help meet critical needs in Oregon communities were selected for federal funding and were chosen based, in part, on feedback received by Senators Merkley and Wyden at community town halls, according to Sen. Merkley’s Office.
Hermiston will receive $665,000 to cover the city’s portion of a larger $5 million project to purchase and install two backup generators on Hermiston’s Regional Water System, with the remainder being covered by private industry, according to Assistant City Manager Mark Morgan.
“The City of Hermiston is thrilled that Senators Merkley and Wyden were able to secure funding for a project that provides a critical layer of protection against natural and man-made disasters which result in power outages,” said Morgan. “These backup generators will ensure that clean drinking water continues to flow to more than 20,000 Oregonians in the Hermiston area, and that process water continues to flow to power producers who supply more than 1 Gigawatt of electricity to the Pacific Northwest power grid.”
Projects in Umatilla, Morrow, Union, Wallowa, Grant, Baker, Harney and Malheur Counties are all slated to receive funding for projects in 2026.
Eastern Oregon CIP Recipients
- $12 million for the Oregon Army National Guard to build Army 10-lane Multi-Purpose Machine Gun Range (MPMG) at the Naval Weapons Systems Training Facility in Boardman.
- $4.5 million to the City of John Day to construct a new wastewater treatment plant
- $2.75 million to the Wallowa County Sheriff’s Office to purchase and install emergency communications equipment to replace an outdated system that does not currently cover the entire rural county.
- $2 million to the Oregon Water Resources Department (OWRD) for well inspection and construction of monitoring wells in the Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area (LUBGWMA), a region experiencing nitrate contamination of groundwater.
- $1.5 million to the City of Pendleton to install wind turbines and a micro-hydroelectric generation system at the Pendleton Resource Recovery Facility.
- $1 million for the McKay Creek Fish Passage Restoration and Monitoring Project.This funding will allow the Bureau of Reclamation to begin an engineering design and fish passage assessment of the McKay Creek dam near Pendleton.
- $665,000 to the City of Hermiston to purchase and install two backup generators on Hermiston’s Regional Water System (RWS). The RWS, operated by the Port of Umatilla and the City of Hermiston, supplies water to industry and Hermiston’s 20,000 residents, but currently has no power alternative in case of an outage. These generators will ensure current users and future industrial clients will have reliable water supplies in an emergency.
- $600,000 to the OWRD to complete a groundwater analysis in the LUBGWMA.
“No one knows what a local community needs more than the local community itself,” said Sen. Wyden. “I am gratified to work alongside Senator Merkley and our Oregon delegation to bring home these federal investments to help communities throughout Oregon thrive.”
