House Appropriations Committee Advances New Federal Funding to Improve Electrical Infrastructure, Create Economic Growth in Mason County
Kilmer Leads Effort to Secure $3,000,000 to Support Belfair Electrical Capacity Infrastructure Project
Washington, DC – Today, the House Appropriations Committee advanced new federal funding that has been championed by U.S. Representative Derek Kilmer (WA-06) to support the Belfair Electrical Capacity Infrastructure Project – which aims to provide electrical capacity to enable economic development in Mason County and assist Belfair’s ability to recover from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“As we work to recover from this pandemic, we’ve got to ensure that communities have the resources they need to attract new investment, create new jobs, and build local economies,” said Rep. Kilmer. “That’s why I’m thrilled that the House Appropriations Committee has advanced new federal funding that I advocated for to help Mason County build out essential electrical infrastructure that can help attract new businesses and investment and increase regional grid resilience for existing customers. The costs of this project shouldn’t fall on the backs of local taxpayer and ratepayers alone. The federal government ought to lend a hand. I’ll keep pushing to get this funding signed into law.”
Belfair is one of the two urban growth areas in Mason County, serving as a commercial hub for the broader community at the northern end of Hood Canal. However, the lack of electric capacity and reliability issues continue to be a primary inhibitor to creating economic growth and attracting new businesses to the region. In fact, in 2021, the Economic Development Council of Mason County had to turn away multiple recruitment opportunities due to lack of electrical infrastructure capacity - resulting in an estimated loss of hundreds of potential new jobs. The Belfair Electrical Capacity Infrastructure Project will improve the electric grid infrastructure at the Belfair substation, add access to existing capacity, and increase new capacity for the northern part of Mason PUD 3’s service territory. In doing so, Mason PUD 3 reports that its grid resiliency and ability to serve new customers will be greatly improved to the Belfair and North Mason area.
“We are so appreciative of Representative Kilmer’s work on securing funding for Mason PUD 3’s Belfair Electrical Capacity Infrastructure Project as it will have a significant impact on the reliability of the PUD’s electric system and ensure the ability to continue to serve the residents and businesses in the North Mason area well into the future. It will also save PUD ratepayers the equivalent of a nearly ten percent (10%) rate increase,” said Annette Creekpaum, Mason PUD 3 General Manager.
“This project has been on the priority list of Mason County elected officials and the Economic Development Council of Mason County for several years due to its ability to relieve current capacity constraints and leverage other infrastructure investments from the State, County, and local developers,” said Linda Gott, Mason PUD 3 President of the Board of Commissioners. “It takes great partnerships to tackle a project this large and we are grateful for Derek’s support. He has visited our facilities, listened to our leadership about the needs in our service territory, and he has championed this effort from the beginning. His office has kept us informed throughout the entire process and it is exciting to see an infusion of federal dollars into our community when we need them most.”
“I am very honored and thankful to Congressman Kilmer and his staff for focusing on infrastructure projects across his district. When looking at development for our small rural community, we are constantly looking at what we need to be successful. Cost and capacity often limit how we are able to grow. But with this funding, we are able to move forward with additional capital investment in the area along with exponential job growth without an undue burden on our citizens,” said Jennifer Barri, Executive Director of Mason EDC. “Again, thank you to all those involved!”
In addition, the Belfair Electrical Capacity Infrastructure Project aims to increase reliability and resilience. Because of the design of the Mason PUD 3 substation and the Bonneville Power Administration’s (BPA) transmission system, when a storm impacts the transmission line near the Belfair substation, BPA is required to take down five of the PUD’s twelve substations creating an outage which can impact over 17,000 residents and businesses. In 2021, and already in 2022, storm emergencies caused businesses to experience outages causing commercial activities to cease until repairs were accomplished. Many businesses were closed and employees unable to work for a day or more in large part due to lack of power during the storms. The new infrastructure architecture provided by the Belfair Electrical Capacity Infrastructure Project is designed to ultimately help BPA and Mason PUD3 avoid this type of major substation outage and aims to provide more redundancy in addition to reliability.
Rep. Kilmer led the effort to secure funding for the project through the House Appropriations Committee’s Community Project Funding process. The Community Infrastructure Project is supported by Mason County, Mason PUD3 the Mason County Economic Development Council, the Bonneville Power Administration, and the Skokomish Tribe.