Port of Olympia’s Iyall asks commission to formally support Capitol Lake estuary plan
Port of Olympia Commissioner Bob Iyall has called on the commission to support the state’s recommendation to convert Capitol Lake back into an estuary.
“I would like this commission to consider formally supporting the DES (state Department of Enterprise Services) project of removing the Fifth Avenue dam and returning Capitol Lake to an estuary,” Iyall said at Monday’s Port Commission meeting.
He gave three reasons for his request, the first of which was that the port has a plan to clean up Budd Inlet, so it only makes sense to support the estuary.
“Although the projects are separate, they rely on each other and each one needs the other to be completed,” he said.
Iyall said the estuary conversion is not only good for Budd Inlet, but also benefits the Deschutes River and the area’s salmon population.
And lastly, Iyall said formal support of the recommendation “might help some of our legislative members gain more confidence to support each of the projects for what they are.”
Commissioner Amy Evans Harding was quick to suggest that they add Iyall’s request to an upcoming agenda and take a vote on the matter before the state’s legislative session comes to an end April 23.
Commissioner Joe Downing, however, took a long pause before he answered, finally saying that since the commission wasn’t going to do a deep dive on the topic Monday night, he would not “resist adding it to a meeting.”
However, it wasn’t too long ago that the port took a different view of what the state was proposing at Capitol Lake.
DES made its formal estuary recommendation last October, but as early as March 2022, DES announced to two work groups that it was likely to make that recommendation. Downing was among those in attendance.
During that presentation, a slide was shown that ranked how the cities of Olympia and Tumwater, Thurston County, LOTT Clean Water Alliance, Squaxin Island Tribe, Port of Olympia and a community sounding board felt about the three options the state considered for the lake: manage the manmade lake, allow it to revert to an estuary, or create a hybrid of the two.
Scored from 1 to 10, the estuary received an overall average score of 8.1. However, the port’s preferred alternative was a managed lake.
Downing expressed concerns about the estuary.
“Taking out the dam poses, on the surface, a very large threat to the existence of the port,” he said. He said the port supports improving water quality, which the estuary will provide, but is concerned about the effect increased sediment could have on port operations.
“I hope going forward we can come to some agreement on sediment,” Downing said.
As for when the port commission might vote on Iyall’s request, Downing pointed out that Evans Harding isn’t able to attend the March 27 meeting.
“If there are only two commissioners present, it makes it tough to vote on something that consequential,” he said.
The commission tentatively agreed to discuss the issue and vote on the matter April 10.
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