The long road from Deschutes estuary to Capitol Lake and back again

In 1911, the designers of the Washington state Capitol proposed creating a reflecting pond or lake below the beautiful Capitol dome, in the estuary of the Deschutes River. In 1937, the state legislature initiated action to create the man-made lake. In 1951, the lake was finally created. So that took 40 years.

Now we’re thinking about how long it will take to restore the Deschutes River estuary, which state officials announced last month is all but certain to be its recommendation for the lake’s future.

Concerns about Capitol Lake’s viability date back to the 1970s. In 1985, the lake was closed to swimmers, and concerns rose over the years about invasive species, pollution and sediment build-up.

The current effort to solve these problems began in 2013, with a preliminary assessment overseen by the state’s Department of Enterprise Services. This involved long conversations with stakeholders, including the Squaxin Tribe, that set four goals in 2016: improve water quality, manage sediment, improve ecological functions, and enhance community use.

Now a draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) has concluded that the best way to achieve those goals is to remove the 5th Avenue dam and restore the estuary. A DES fact sheet explains that “This would reintroduce tidal flow to the Capitol Lake Basin, returning the area to estuarine conditions where saltwater from Budd Inlet would mix with freshwater from the Deschutes River. Sediment would be managed through initial dredging in the Capitol Lake Basin and recurring maintenance dredging within the West Bay of Budd Inlet.

“In the Middle and South Basins, constructed habitat would promote ecological diversity, although tideflats would be the predominant habitat type,” it continues. “Boardwalks, a 5th Avenue pedestrian bridge, a dock and a boat launch would be constructed for community use.”

The one task to complete before making the draft final is decision-making about which government jurisdictions will be responsible for which parts of that plan, and how it will be paid for. This includes figuring out who will pay for dredging that will be needed to keep the Port of Olympia in business. All that is to be worked out by October.

Once the EIS is final, it could be appealed. No one can say how likely that is, or how long appeals might hold things up.

Design and permitting for the project are projected to take three to five years. Construction is estimated to take another seven or eight years – assuming that the federal, state and local funding is adequate and timely.

So if all goes well — a big if — we’ll have an estuary in about 13 more years, 22 years from the time this effort started in 2013, and 50 years after the lake became too polluted to swim in. Litigation or funding shortages could make it take longer.

This restoration is urgently needed for several reasons: respect for Squaxin tribal treaty rights, creation of estuarine habitat for juvenile salmon and all the other plants and critters that need it, better resilience as sea levels rise, and long-term improvement of stormwater management and water quality.

Restoring the estuary won’t solve all the pollution problems upstream in the Deschutes River, but it will certainly raise awareness of the need to do so. It’s also a step we must take if we claim to be serious about saving our struggling salmon.

The changing tides should smell just fine, if we use the restored estuary at the Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge as a living example.

Those who have been advocating for the estuary for many years want this to happen faster. But we are impressed by the competence and collaboration that is moving this complex and controversial project forward.

We are still a very long way from having a healthy Deschutes estuary and a healthy Puget Sound, but this project will literally help (re)turn the tide.