The LOTT Clean Water Alliance will pay $3.75 million for the property, tuck the new plant up against the brewery bluff, then work with City of Tumwater officials to create green space and a walking trail adjacent to the Deschutes River.
That will greatly increase public access to about 1,500 feet of Deschutes River shoreline in the heart of the city. What a terrific gift to future generations. This is good news, indeed.
LOTT, which is funded by South Sound ratepayers, purchased the V-shaped parcel from Capital Salvage of California. It’s part of LOTT’s plans to expand wastewater treatment capacity throughout Olympia, Lacey and Tumwater.
Years ago, LOTT began to shift away from its single wastewater treatment plant at the base of Budd Inlet in downtown Olympia. Because wastewater and stormwater are mixed at times of heavy rainfall, LOTT was unable to fully treat all the water before it was discharged into the bay. With efforts to clean up Puget Sound, and a desire to reclaim water, LOTT shifted to a model of satellite plants that are able to treat the wastewater to such high standards it can recharge the aquifer or be transported through purple pipes to water golf courses, parks and other green spaces. It’s a sound environmental model that will serve the South Sound community well for years to come.
The challenge, of course, is to find sufficient property in the urban area to host those satellite treatment plants.
The abandoned brewery property is ideal. What we especially like are the plans to shift the plant out of the flood plain under the bluff below Cleveland Avenue, then use the river shoreline for public access to the Deschutes.
“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 said. “It creates some partnership opportunities between the city and LOTT.”
It’s a partnership that will serve ratepayers, government entities and the general public well. And it rekindles the public’s hope that the brewery property in the center of Tumwater will once again be a community asset instead of the detriment it is today.
Credit goes to members of the Tumwater City Council for its efforts to create a vision for the property and put land-use regulations in place to accommodate that vision. LOTT was mentioned early in the visioning process as a possible partner. Now the first piece of the puzzle is in place and we suspect that once the economy improves other developers will see the potential for investment in the brewery property, too.
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 five 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.
It’s a perfect strategy and a sound policy decision to purchase the waterfront property for public use.
