Small Coastal Towns, Big Infrastructure Bills — Pacific County’s Water and Sewer Push
While Clark County wrestles with permitting timelines and zoning updates, the construction story unfolding on the Long Beach Peninsula looks a lot more basic: aging water and sewer pipes that towns of a few thousand people can’t afford to replace on their own.
The Washington State Public Works Board awarded more than $5 million to eight infrastructure projects at its April meeting, spanning Clallam, Clark, Grays Harbor, Island, Jefferson, Pacific, and Pend Oreille counties. Long Beach picked up a $121,500 loan paired with a $121,500 grant to fund planning and engineering for upgrading its sewer system along 25th Street Northeast — work aimed at converting an area still served by aging septic systems onto city sewer, protecting groundwater and clearing the way for needed roadway improvements. Nearby Raymond received $150,000 in loan funding plus a $150,000 grant for emergency repairs to a failed sewer main serving its downtown.
Long Beach is also chasing bigger federal dollars. U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez submitted a $3.2 million congressional earmark request this spring on the city’s behalf for sewer improvements along Oregon Avenue North — funding that would replace a main serving roughly 800 customers, including two low-income housing facilities, the city’s fire station, and a number of seniors on fixed incomes. It’s one of five Pacific County projects among 20 Southwest Washington earmark requests the congresswoman submitted this year, alongside efforts to preserve and improve drinking water in Ilwaco and Long Beach and build a new career and technical education facility in Raymond.
None of this is glamorous work compared to a downtown mixed-use tower or a billion-dollar bridge package, but it’s real, funded construction — and it’s a reminder that SW Washington’s infrastructure needs don’t stop at the Clark County line. For contractors with municipal utility experience, these small coastal jurisdictions represent a steady, if modest, category of public works bid opportunities that rarely get covered alongside the bigger Vancouver-area headlines.
Sources:
- Washington State Department of Commerce, “Public Works Board awards $5.1 million for infrastructure projects at April meeting” — https://www.commerce.wa.gov/public-works-board-awards-5-1-million-for-infrastructure-projects-at-april-meeting/
- Chinook Observer, “Local projects vying for $10M in congressional funding” (May 4, 2026) — https://chinookobserver.com/2026/05/03/local-projects-vying-for-10m-in-congressional-funding/
