$3 million in grants to bolster Ryderwood area power grid
Portions of rural Cowlitz and Lewis counties, including the retirement community of Ryderwood, will see fewer outages in severe weather thanks to a combined $3 million in federal and state infrastructure grants.
With help from a nearly $1.15 million federal grant funded by both houses earlier this month - along with a $1.9 million Washington Grid Resilience Program grant - Cowlitz Public Utility District will move 5.4 miles of power lines underground to areas serving roughly 700 residents, including those living in the former logging town-turned-senior living community.
Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help
Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to The Daily News.
Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell worked with Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez to secure the $1.15 million in funding through the fiscal year 2026 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill, which was signed into law by the president earlier this month according to releases from the two legislators' offices.
Cantwell is a ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation and a senior member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
According to Cantwell, Cowlitz County PUD's $1.15 million grant for the Ryderwood project is among roughly $5.3 million in infrastructure investments made across four communities in Washington state.
In addition to the Cowlitz PUD project, Yakima Valley Emergency Management got $1.9 million for a new emergency operation center, the city of Seattle got nearly $1.15 million for replacing a vulnerable downtown seawall, and the Sammamish Plateau Water and Sewer District got $1.12 million for a seismic resiliency project to shore up the community's water system, according to Cantwell's office.
AmeriCorps in Ryderwood (copy)
An AmeriCorps volunteer shovels mud to help a senior in Ryderwood in this 2021 file photo. Cowlitz PUD recently received more than $3 million in state and federal grants to move power transmission lines underground and reduce outages in the rural senior living community.
Ryderwood's $1.9 million Washington Grid Resilience Program grant uses federal funds from the U.S. Department of Energy made available through the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, according to Gluesenkamp Perez's office.
Ryderwood historically was a logging town, but the census-designated place became a retirement community in 1953. Its website describes itself as "likely the country's oldest retirement community." A homeowners association manages and maintains the retirement community.
The infrastructure project is designed to reduce wildfire risk and prevent extended outages in the area serving vulnerable seniors.
Currently power to the area comes from transmission lines along an abandoned railroad corridor through dense forests, which has resulted in hourslong outages in the area.
According to Gluesenkamp Perez's office, the area experienced 38 outages over 29 days between 2016 and 2025. Each outage had an average duration of 7.2 hours, with one winter storm outage reportedly lasting about 18 hours.
According to quotes in Gluesenkamp Perez's release attributed to Cowlitz PUD General Manager Gary Huhta, moving the transmission lines underground will mitigate those outages.
"This funding will allow us to virtually eliminate these outages and mitigate wildfire risk by undergrounding the power line serving Ryderwood and nearby rural residents," Huhta said.
Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.
This story was originally published May 26, 2026 at 4:29 AM.