The nine-member Capitol Lake Adaptive Management Plan steering committee was formed in 1997 and is best known for the several years and $1.7 million it spent studying the pros and cons of reverting the 260-acre man-made lake into a free-flowing estuary of the Deschutes River.
The committee, on a split vote, recommended the estuary option last year, essentially completing its major task.
The state budget signed by Gov. Chris Gregoire this week eliminates the committee, along with about 70 other state-funded boards, commissions and committees.
“The CLAMP group was created to make a recommendation on the lake,” said state Sen. Karen Fraser, D-Thurston County. “They completed their work. Now, in the next session, General Administration should have a recommendation on lake management to the Legislature.”
The timing of that recommendation is uncertain. Former Gregoire aide Joyce Turner took over as General Administration’s director in April and still is studying the lake-versus-estuary issue.
“I will need time to evaluate the great amount of information and research gathered to date,” she said in an e-mail this week announcing the suspension of the CLAMP group.
Ultimately, the fate of the lake, which is considered part of the Capitol Campus, rests with the Legislature, Fraser said.
The lake, which hasn’t been dredged since 1986 and is plagued by water-quality and invasive-species problems, is filling up with river sediment. The lake and estuary options both require dredging, Fraser said.
“It’s going to be very tricky for us to find funding for any option,” she said.
Fraser said she hasn’t made up her mind about whether to support the lake or an estuary. However, she said she wants to preserve at least part of the north basin as a reflecting pool for the Capitol.
Some members of the defunct advisory committee fear that dismantling the CLAMP group leaves behind unfinished business and quiets a voice and lobby on behalf of the estuary option.
The lake has a variety of water-quality problems, including an infestation of New Zealand mud snails, that will need ongoing attention, said CLAMP committee Chairman Neil McClanahan, a Tumwater City Council member.
“My biggest concern is that we’ll lose momentum on water quality,” he said. “I don’t want to see that happen.”
The 2010 supplemental capital budget language that axed the CLAMP committee authorizes General Administration to spend the $50,000 it had left for CLAMP activities to tackle invasive species in the lake.
Meanwhile, a coalition of community leaders who formed the Capitol Lake Improvement and Protection Association in January expects to unveil in the weeks ahead a short-term and a long-term plan for preserving the lake, founding member Bob Wubbena said.
CLAMP committee members on record in support of the estuary are Thurston County; the Squaxin Island Tribe; and the state departments of Ecology, Fish and Wildlife, and Natural Resources. The Port of Olympia and Tumwater supported the lake, Olympia is undecided, and General Administration has yet to take a position.
John Dodge: 360-754-5444 jdodge@theolympian.com
