By APRIL ERHLICH/Oregon Public Broadcasting

The federal government is suing the electric utility PacifiCorp over a 2020 wildfire in Douglas County.

The Archie Creek Fire burned across more than 131,000 acres, about half of that federal land, according to the legal complaint filed Thursday.

The U.S. Attorney General’s Office accuses PacifiCorp of failing to maintain its equipment or the vegetation around it, thus sparking the fire that would destroy about 170 homes.

Thursday’s lawsuit adds to a growing list of cases against utility companies for the role that charged powerlines play in sparking fires during wind storms and other extreme weather events. It filed on the same day that the Oregon Public Utility Commission approved PacifiCorp’s request to increase residential customer utility rates by nearly 10%. The company partly blamed wildfire costs for driving rate increases.

PacifiCorp has so far settled with over 2,000 plaintiffs across multiple class action suits tying its equipment to wildfires. Last year it agreed to pay $299 million to settle with 463 plaintiffs, many of them people and businesses displaced by the fires. In another suit, it reached a $250 million settlement with commercial timber companies.

In its most recent financial report, from November, PacifiCorp executives estimate 2020 and 2022 wildfire lawsuits have cost the company nearly $2.7 billion.

It outlines data showing how often it has incurred state violations for not clearing vegetation from its power lines. It also references a 2021 federal investigation in Utah, in which utility regulators concluded that almost half of the PacifiCorp transmission lines were so poorly maintained, they should not have carried an electrical current.

The federal lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court of Oregon, demands the company pay for all costs and damages the federal government incurred from the Archie Creek Fire.

In a statement, PacifiCorp said it “will review legal filings and will respond appropriately.”

The legal complaint doesn’t say how much the Archie Creek cost the federal government, but PacifiCorp’s November financial report says the U.S. Department of Justice estimates the fire cost the country $625 million.

The PacifiCorp filing also says the Oregon Department of Justice has informed the company it might pursue similar litigation. The office calculated state costs at $109 million.