
Electric Outage: 1-844-484-2300
Water Emergency: 541-685-7595
EWEB Main: 541-685-7000
To maintain the reliability customers have come to know and trust, EWEB must address an aging infrastructure bubble.
Find Out MoreEWEB General Manager Frank Lawson delivered his annual State of the Utility Address at the March 7 public Board of Commissioners meeting.
Find Out MoreGreenpower Grants, a program funded by voluntary Greenpower customer subscriptions is currently accepting applications. The grant will fund a high-impact project that increase the use of renewable energy sources, the adoption of emerging technologies, clean energy education and reduce or offset our community's carbon footprint.
Find Out MoreEugene is one of the largest cities on the west coast with only a single source of drinking water, the McKenzie River. And though the McKenzie is a pure, reliable water source, EWEB will secure a second source ensure resiliency in the future, planning to build a water treatment plant on the Willamette River, upstream of Eugene and Springfield.
Find Out MoreFor the past year, EWEB’s electric division has been preparing for a complete reconstruction of the Currin substation. Quite simply, it’s reached the end of its useful life.
Find Out MoreWith cold and icy weather forecasted for the next several days, we want to share some tips on how to heat your home while still conserving energy. We also have tips on how to stay warm if there is a power outage at your home.
Find Out MoreEWEB is building two 7.5-million-gallon water storage tanks on a 10-acre property at East 40th and Patterson Street in South Eugene. The tanks are part of our work to improve EWEB’s water storage infrastructure for future resiliency to earthquakes and climate change. People who live nearby have been watching the progress of the work since summer 2021.
Find Out MoreEWEB has awarded nearly $125,000 in grant funds to local organizations that promote electric mobility and reduce community carbon emissions.
Find Out MoreGrantees in the McKenzie River Valley can receive up to $35,000 each
Find Out MoreCollaborating with the City of Eugene, a Climate Guidebook, and priorities for upriver EWEB customers were the main topics at the Feb. 7 Board of Commissioners meeting. The five-member Board serves without pay and is elected by EWEB customers. Their job is to establish policies and values and set EWEB’s long-term direction. Board meetings are open to the public and include opportunities for public comment.
Find Out MoreYou may have noticed a plaque along the sidewalk on East 4th Avenue near the entrance to the employee parking lot at EWEB’s former headquarters building. It commemorates Wiley Griffon. He’s not considered the first Black resident of Eugene. But he is the first one mentioned by name, according to scholars.
Find Out MoreWorld Pulses Day is celebrated on February 10, and is a day to celebrate and spread information on the environmental and personal health benefits of pulses, aka beans, peas and lentils.
Find Out MoreEugene has some of the best drinking water in the world. That’s thanks to our source, the pristine McKenzie River. It’s also thanks to the people at EWEB; whether an engineer designing a new reservoir, a treatment plant operator ensuring the safety and quality of drinking water, or a member of a crew maintaining the infrastructure in our community, water professionals work around the clock to ensure tap water is there when you need it.
Find Out MoreThe Eugene City Council approved the purchase of EWEB's former riverfront headquarters property at a meeting on Jan. 30. The terms of the deal state that the City of Eugene will purchase the 4.4-acre property, which includes two buildings and parking lots, for $12 million.
Find Out MoreAt EWEB, we do what we can to help others in need. That’s been the reality for several of our electric and water crews over the past few weeks as we’ve responded to mutual aid requests for storm response and drinking water restoration, locally, and out of state.
Find Out MoreJanuary 25, 2023 • Rachael McDonald, EWEB Communications
An EWEB-supported program provides firewood for people affected by the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire. The McKenzie Firewood Program was developed by Pure Water Partners (PWP) in 2021.
The fire swept through the McKenzie River Valley, burning more than 173,000 acres, hundreds of homes, and 25 miles of McKenzie River frontage. The McKenzie is currently the sole source of drinking water for 200,000 people in Eugene. Since the fire, it has been under threat from carbon, nutrients, metals, various chemical contaminants and sediment from burned and eroded slopes entering the river. As the community recovers, EWEB and our Pure Water Partners have been working on watershed protection and restoration projects, including helping people clear out the downed and dead trees and brush to reduce the fuels for a potential future fire.
Lara Colley with McKenzie Watershed Council, which collaborates with EWEB in Pure Water Partners, proposed the firewood program.
“We were chipping a lot of large wood and logs on the properties we were working on in Pure Water Partners,” Colley said. “And I had been reading about a program in Wallowa County where they had a free firewood program to benefit residents in the community.”
Colley herself lives within the fire’s footprint.
“And, personally, we lost our firewood in the fire and I knew other people who heated with wood, who had lost their wood,” said Colley. “So, I had the idea that we could start firewood program to deal with all of this wood that was coming off of properties.”
“I have an old-time wood stove in this little unit. I stay in a little studio, but it heats this place great,” said Dennis Mortimer as he stacked wood in a carport, rain pounding on the roof.
Dennis Mortimer escaped the fire running in his slippers and lost his home. He’s currently staying on friends’ property near Rainbow. On this rainy morning, he just got two cords of firewood. Brink’s Land Improvement – a contractor helping with the fuel mitigation work – delivered it aged, split and ready to go in Mortimer’s wood stove.
“It's been essential for a lot of people here, not just myself, but it's been very essential,” said Mortimer. “I know a lot of people are taking advantage of it and having it split-- I'm getting a little older in years now, and I know a lot of other people that can't get out and do the work. It's just been, like I say, essential to the to the area.”
Mortimer said he’s encouraged friends and neighbors who need the firewood to sign up for the program.
Jeff Brink delivered the wood to Mortimer. He’s with Brink’s Land Improvement which is a sponsor of the firewood program.
They split the wood at the Three Sisters Meadow, next to the McKenzie track in Blue River. The property is currently owned and stewarded by McKenzie River Trust.
Brink said they deliver the firewood to those who can’t come to the yard.
“To date, we have split and delivered 300 cords upriver between last year and this year,” Brink said. “So, a pretty significant amount.”
Brink said the service benefits the people in the community and the environment. They’re keeping the wood local and reducing the amount brought here.
“The wood is being sourced locally from fuels properties and there's no really like spreading of disease or wood carried insects from outside the fire footprint in which I think is really important because this forest as it recovers, is really susceptible to insect diseases,” Brink said. “So the more wood we can keep inside this community, the less we're going to deal with more hardships. It's pretty much a good program all around.”
To qualify for the firewood program participants must demonstrate that they’ve been affected by the Holiday farm Fire and that they’re low income. Brink said there is a lot of need in this community which was devastated by the fire. He described a recent delivery to a local resident.
“We delivered and he was on his last two pieces of wood for the winter,” said Brink. “So if it wasn't for us, he would be out of wood. What's his alternatives for keeping warm? He's a very good example of the people we're trying to help up here that are in a position where they've spent their savings just trying to survive up here. And we're able to kind of lend a hand.”
Lara Colley said it’s been gratifying to see this program take off.
“It's just really nice to see neighbors, people I know, getting wood, staying warm," Colley said. "I feel like we're doing something positive out of this fire that was, you know, a terrible thing. We have some positive things coming out of it that are helping people now.”
EWEB customers help support the Pure Water Partners program which administers the firewood program and restoration work up the McKenzie River that protects the watershed and our drinking water.
Para asistencia en español llame al 541-685-7000, presione 9
Mailing Address: 4200 Roosevelt Blvd., Eugene, OR 97402
Phone: 541-685-7000
Toll free: 800-841-5871
Email: eweb.answers@eweb.org
Customer service phone hours: 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday - Friday