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The sewer partners announced this week they have purchased 36 acres of former brewery property for $3.75 million as a future home for a wastewater treatment plant.
LOTT officials have also indicated interest in improving public access and habitat along 1,500 feet of Deschutes River shoreline that flanks the west side of the V-shaped parcel purchased from Capital Salvage of California.
“We’re open to looking at trails and restoring habitat along the riverfront,” said Karla Fowler, LOTT director of community relations and environmental policy. “Any site we develop we look for multiple benefits for the community.”
Tumwater Mayor Pete Kmet said the LOTT purchase keeps the momentum going on long-term development of the brewery complex, which has been dormant since Miller Brewing Co. shut down beer production eight years ago.
“The LOTT purchase locks up the riverfront in public ownership,” Kmet noted. “It creates some partnership opportunities between the city and LOTT.”
The portion of the property LOTT would develop is on the southeast side of the brewery warehouse on higher ground below the bluff adjoining Cleveland Avenue.
While walking trails and habitat improvements could happen in the next few years, the Lacey, Olympia, Tumwater and Thurston County sewer partners don’t expect to need another treatment plant until 2024, Fowler said.
The treatment plant could take one of several forms, depending on what rules are in place for discharge and use of treated wastewater at the time, Fowler said. For instance, it could be:
• A satellite treatment plant treating up to 5 million gallons per day and similar to LOTT’s reclaimed water plant on Martin Way in Lacey.
• A plant to provide advance treatment of effluent from the Budd Inlet treatment plant, if future regulations restrict LOTT’s ability to discharge from the Budd Inlet plant into Puget Sound.
• A plant with advanced treatment processes in case future regulations require LOTT to treat reclaimed wastewater to a higher standard.
“We’re trying to keep all of our options open,” Fowler said.
City zoning for the LOTT property includes light industrial and commercial uses, which makes LOTT’s proposal compatible with city land-use plans for the site, Kmet said.
LOTT intends to limit structures to areas that sit above the Deschutes River floodplain.
However, city zoning allows wastewater treatment plants in the river floodplain, city community development director Mike Matlock said.
Kmet said some of the riverfront habitat restoration work could help reduce the potential of flooding by restoring the channelized river with a more natural, meandering stream.
John Dodge: 360-754-5444 jdodge@theolympian.com
