The State’s Smallest Electric Co-Op Met the Moment During the 2024 Wildfire Season but Faces an Uncertain Future Without Federal Assistance
All of Oregon’s 18 electric cooperatives breathed a collective sigh of relief as a wet October ended Oregon’s fire season. According to the Oregon Department of Forestry, wildfires with names like Battle Mountain, Durkee, and Monkey Creek burned more than 1.9 million acres across the state in 2024, representing the most acreage burned in the last 30 years.
Wildfires are random and indiscriminate, but 1 Oregon electric utility was positioned at the center of the state’s 2024 wildfire season. Incredibly, almost 1/5 of all the burned acres were in the rugged, sparse territory of 1 of the state’s smallest electric utilities: Columbia Power Cooperative, headquartered in Monument, population 116.
CPC and its 11 employees serve about 2,000 members in frontier areas of Wheeler, Gran,t and Umatilla counties. Life is hard in this remote part of Oregon, with approximately 2.8 homes per mile of line. Many CPC members are low-income and economically disadvantaged.
Providing electricity is hard, too, as power lines traverse the high desert and mountainous terrain, reaching the small towns of Mitchell, Spray, and Ukiah.
On July 17, the Lone Rock Fire surrounded CPC’s isolated territory, causing major outages. An extremely dry spring, soaring temperatures, and low humidity provided ripe conditions for a series of blazes not easily contained by firefighters.
While the source of the Lone Rock Fire remains under investigation, lightning strikes created several smaller fires. Within 48 hours, the wind shifted, turning the fire toward Monument. CPC’s headquarters, as well as many of the homes of its employees, faced a Level 3 “Go now!” evacuation order from public safety officials. Considering the imminent danger, it would be perfectly understandable for employees to flee from harm’s way.
“Not a single member of our team left their post,” CPC General Manager Lisa Atkin said.
In a 24-hour timeframe, all of CPC’s 2,000 members experienced some level of power outage. Working valiantly to restore power and contain the damage, CPC lineworkers used chainsaws to manage timber and operated pumpers and sprayers to extinguish flames from burning poles.
There was little time to rest. According to Atkin, the lineworkers slept in their trucks while other CPC employees provided food service and whatever else was necessary.
“The crew worked around the clock for weeks to repair the system and restore power to the community,” she said.
Fires raged across CPC’s territory for nearly 2 months, burning more than 300,000 acres. The Lone Rock Fire is the longest-running wildfire of 2024. It destroyed several homes and buildings and inflicted multiple injuries. CPC suffered $12.5 million in damages—a staggering blow to an electric co-op with an annual operating budget of less than $2 million. It’s not a blow CPC can sustain alone.
Atkin immediately went to work seeking financial relief for her members, lobbying the state of Oregon to support her restoration efforts. According to her calculations, it would take 6 years for the co-op to completely rebuild without state or federal assistance. And the burden would fall on CPC members in the form of dramatically higher rates.
“People would have to choose between heating their homes and eating a meal,” Atkin said. “And that is unacceptable.”
Atkin credits Oregon State Rep. Mark Owens for helping alert policymakers’ attention to CPC’s plight.
“His leadership has been effective in solving the problem,” she said.
On October 21, Governor Tina Kotek sent a letter to President Joe Biden requesting a federal major disaster declaration. The request applies to 6 Oregon counties—Gilliam, Grant, Jefferson, Umatilla, Wasco, and Wheeler—and specifically mentions “destruction to utility poles and lines” in CPC’s territory. If approved, the action would provide grants through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Public Assistance Program for damage from wildfires between July 10 and Sept. 7, 2024. The wheels of the federal government turn slowly, as it typically takes 6 weeks for the administration to respond to a request.
Time is not on Atkin’s side. CPC now heads into winter, a season of historically high winds and heavy snow—a recipe for more damage to poles and trees. Then, another fire season beckons, bringing not only the threat of wildfire but the threat of liability from wildfire lawsuits.
CPC has an aggressive wildfire mitigation plan, but no utility can be perfect 100% of the time. The state’s second-largest utility—Pacific Power—faces the prospect of billions of dollars in judgments from wildfire-related lawsuits, a development that has every Oregon utility wondering if they are 1 spark away from bankruptcy.
In the meantime, Atkin said CPC will start to rebuild and plan for whatever Mother Nature throws at them. Being a part of the state’s smallest electric co-op requires a special brand of teamwork, and Atkin takes pride in a staff that has continually demonstrated they are committed, flexible, and resilient to meet any challenge.
“We may be small,” Atkin said. “But we are mighty.”
