Where: Detroit, Marion County, Oregon

Problem: Small rural communities struggle to obtain the emergency funding required to replace critical infrastructure destroyed by wildfires.

Solution: Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC) provided technical assistance that allowed the city to access $1.15 million in USDA emergency grant funds.

Detroit, Oregon is a rural community in Marion County with approximately 200 residents. The September 2020 Santiam Fire caused widespread devastation in the town and destroyed the city’s water treatment plant. However, property owners required access to adequate sanitation to legally reside on their properties and rebuild.

RCAC staff participated in interagency wildfire meetings in the months that followed. As part of the process, Oregon U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development (USDA-RD) staff asked RCAC to work with Detroit to apply for a source water Emergency Community Water Assistance Grant (ECWAG) to purchase a temporary water treatment plant, which would allow the city to repressurize the water system so residents could return.

Detroit’s city hall had been destroyed along with most city records, but RCAC was able to recover financial reports and data the city had submitted to its auditor prior to the Santiam Fire. RCAC worked with the mayor, engineering consultant and USDA-RD staff to complete the online $1 million water source ECWAG application, which was submitted in December 2020 and approved in January 2021. The grant enabled the city to purchase a temporary treatment plant and provide water to residents during recovery efforts.

In early 2022, RCAC staff started a distribution ECWAG application to access an additional $150,000 in grant funding to replace a section of the water main and services that the fire had also damaged. In October 2022, the application was approved, bringing the total amount of critical grant funding to Detroit to $1.15 million. RCAC continues to provide Detroit with technical assistance as it works toward recovery.