Grant supported by Cantwell and MGP will support Ryderwood, the oldest retirement community in the U.S.
May 22-This week U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and senior member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania, announced news that Cowlitz Public Utility District has received $3 million in combined federal and state grant funding to relocate and bury a 5.4-mile distribution power line serving the senior citizen community of Ryderwood and nearby rural areas in Cowlitz and Lewis counties.
"By helping Cowlitz Public Utility District move more than 5 miles of power lines underground, this project will virtually eliminate power outages and ensure reliability during storms," Cantwell said in a recent news release. "This is exactly why we fought to secure historic grid resilience investments in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law: To modernize aging infrastructure and protect vulnerable communities from increasingly severe weather. For the hundreds of seniors who live in Ryderwood - many of whom are reliant on electric medical devices or confined to their homes - this project could be lifesaving."
"For many, a power outage is an inconvenience. For seniors in Ryderwood, timber, ice, windstorms and remoteness can quickly turn a power outage deadly," Gluesenkamp Perez said in the release. "These funds for critical undergrounding will improve power supply and lower energy cost across the region, freeing up our linemen for less predictable emergency winter repairs."
The funding includes $1.15 million secured by Cantwell and Gluesenkamp Perez in the final version of the Fiscal Year 2026 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill. The appropriation supplements a $1.9 million Washington Grid Resilience Program Grant awarded by the Washington state Department of Commerce, using federal grid resilience funds from the U.S. Department of Energy.
Ryderwood is an isolated former logging town that was turned into a retirement community in 1953. It is believed to be the first planned retirement community in the U.S. The town gets its power from transmission lines that pass through a densely forested abandoned railroad corridor. Between 2016 and 2025, the line experienced 38 outages over 29 days, averaging 7.2 hours per outage, including winter storm events lasting up to 18 hours, the news release stated. These outages pose heightened risks for Ryderwood's elderly population, many of whom depend on electricity for heating, medical devices and communications, the release stated.
The project will reduce wildfire risk, prevent extended outages during severe weather, and improve electric reliability for more than 700 rural residents, most of whom are seniors, the release stated.
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