PACIFIC COUNTY — The firings, resignations and general exodus of hundreds of workers at the Bonneville Power Administration have the full attention of local utility administrators.

The BPA, which distributes hydropower from 31 dams and operates 75% of the Pacific Northwest’s power grid, including Pacific County, moved last month to eliminate about 430 total positions within the federal agency. It includes positions that Pacific PUD General Manager Marc Wilson says are “critical” to the federal agency’s operations — linemen, power dispatchers, engineers, duty schedulers and substation operators.

The cuts come amid a larger purge of the federal workforce initiated by the Trump administration. That effort is headed up by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, the Elon Musk-led initiative. President Donald Trump in February signed an executive order that installs a “DOGE Team Lead” at every federal agency who is put in charge of hiring.

Of the 430 jobs eliminated thus far at BPA, accounting for 10-15% of the agency’s workforce, about 240 are employees who resigned and took the Trump administration’s buyout offer. Another 100 probationary employees — those in their first year or two on the job — were fired, and another 90 people had received job offers from the agency that were later rescinded.

“While Pacific PUD has not yet experienced direct impacts from the significant workforce reductions at BPA, we are deeply concerned,” Wilson said Feb. 28 to the Observer, calling the agency a “cornerstone of our wholesale energy infrastructure.”

He shared a similar sentiment in an email to Ilwaco City Councilor Matt Lessnau on Feb. 19, saying he was “alarmed” by the staffing cuts that had been made at BPA. Wilson added that he was working closely with the PUD’s trade organizations to put pressure on the U.S. Department of Energy, which oversees the agency.

While BPA is a division of the DOE, Wilson and others have been quick to point out that BPA is a self-funded federal agency — it’s supported by ratepayers, not taxpayers. Staffing and equipment is not paid for via federal funds but rather by the electricity it sells as well as transmission fees.

“While these workforce reductions will not impact the federal budget, they pose significant risks to the reliability of our power system and could result in economic harm to our communities,” said Wilson, a reality that was reiterated by Randy Hardy, an energy consultant and former BPA administrator.

Hardy told Oregon Public Broadcasting in February that the staffing cuts are “a serious, serious, operational problem” and said it could lead to a greater possibility of unplanned power outages.

Since 2023, Pacific PUD has purchased all of its electricity at cost from BPA.