The Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) program accelerates investment in our nation's water infrastructure by providing long-term, low-cost supplemental loans for regionally and nationally significant projects. CASCADE GROUNDWATER DEVELOPMENT PROJECT BORROWER: Rockwood Water People's Utility District and City of Gresham LOCATION: Multnomah County, Oregon WIFIA LOAN AMOUNTS: $30,419,935 (Rockwood), $34,078,873 (Gresham) TOTAL WIFIA PROJECT COSTS: $131,942,784 POPULATION SERVED BY PROJECT: 136,000 NUMBER OF JOBS CREATED: 422 PROJECT DESCRIPTION The Cascade Groundwater Development Project will enable the Rockwood Water People's Utility District and the City of Gresham, Oregon to jointly provide reliable, high quality potable water to their customers, The project will expand the existing groundwater infrastructure to develop an independent regional groundwater system. By increasing groundwater treatment capacity, it will mitigate rapid water quality changes caused by extreme weather. Additionally, the project offers increased resiliency against earthquakes by implementing alerts and seismically hardened construction techniques. Establishing an independent groundwater system will provide significant long-term cost benefits to residents by reducing reliance on imported surface water. PROJECT BENEFITS • Increases the system's resiliency to regional emergency events, including seismic activity. • Helps mitigate the effects of extreme weather events on system caused by climate change. • Saves Rockwood Water People's Utility District approximately $7.9 million and City of Gresham approximately $10.4 million by financing with WIFIA loans. WIFIA PROGRAM Photo credit: Rockwood Water People's Utility District £% United States Environmental Protection kl m % Agency WEBSITE: www.epa.gov/wifia EMAIL: wifia@EPA.gov ------- |