Brewery Park at Tumwater Falls to remain closed until repairs made, pandemic subsides

Due to multiple maintenance, repair and construction projects, Brewery Park at Tumwater Falls will remain closed indefinitely for public safety concerns, according to the nonprofit foundation that owns the park.

During its closure, the park will continue construction on a new bike path, make repairs to the east trail and update the park’s main office.

Brewery Park, formerly known as Tumwater Falls Park, “had a rough year” in 2019, according to John Freedman, executive director of the Olympia Tumwater Foundation (OTF), the non-profit that owns and maintains the park at no cost to citizens.

An oil spill from the old brewery in 2019 sent gallons of toxic sludge into the soil of Brewery Park’s eastern trail. A subsequent cleanup project by Washington State’s Department of Ecology repaired the damaged soil, but after heavy rain, it became clear that the initial repairs were not enough.

The soil was eroded and rain caused segments of the trail to collapse into the Deschutes River. Continued rains only made things worse when a man-made waterfall underneath the Boston Street bridge deteriorated, sending massive volumes of water down onto the east trail. The rush of water broke a fence and caused a rock buttress that holds up the trail to topple down onto the banks of the river.

The Department of Ecology was asked to come back and evaluate the situation at the same time COVID-19 cases began appearing in Washington.

Since then, the Department of Ecology and the foundation have had back and forth email conversation about sending a crew down to evaluate of the scene. Right now, Ecology is “working with our contractors to see what work needs to be done (to the trail),” said Ty Keltner, the communications manager for the department’s Spills Prevention, Preparedness and Response team.

Freedman said he is grateful for the work the department has done, all at no cost to the foundation.

The park was briefly open in 2020, but when COVID-19 hit Thurston County, OTF decided to shut it down, Freedman told The Olympian. Even though other parks such as neighboring Tumwater Historical Park have reopened, Brewery Park is going to remain closed until the county has reached Phase 4 of Gov. Jay Inslee’s Safe Start plan.

“It’s very frustrating for us, too,” Freedman said. Having the park closed has shut off the foundation from its usual source of revenue: visitors. According to Freedman, the park usually has about 300,000 visitors annually, many of whom will donate to the foundation.

For the first time, the foundation has begun soliciting donations and is applying for multiple grants to fund park improvements.

The closure has allowed the park to work on new projects and start the process of making repairs to the eastern trail. One of the first projects to be completed was the salmon hatchery, which the Department of Natural Resources got an easement from the foundation to build. The hatchery has glass walls to make for easy fish viewing.

The park’s latest project is the western trail. Built to be an ADA compliant bike path that will connect the park with Tumwater Historical Park, the western trail is a project from the city of Tumwater that the foundation granted an easement for. Currently, a wall is being built at the Brewery Park entrance to the trail, which the bike path will go on top of. The path stretches from underneath the Falls Terrace Restaurant and to the Historical Park. Freedman estimates the trail will be complete in another five months.

The foundation is also updating its office so when the park reopens, there will be a place where people can learn the history of the park, brewery and foundation. New artwork depicting Tumwater Falls created by Paul Lanquist adorns the exterior walls of the office. On the side facing the falls, sandstone reclaimed from the old Tumwater powerhouse has been used to create a courtyard. The side of an old Olympia Beer truck painted with the landscape of the Tumwater Falls bridge hangs on the office wall facing the falls.

This story was originally published July 14, 2020 at 5:45 AM.