EIS necessary step for Capitol Lake

In his recent letter (March 24), David Milne contends that no more study is needed of Capitol Lake and makes six unsupported claims about the lake that are simply not true. The fact is that the only scientific peer who’s ever reviewed Milne’s work on Capitol Lake disagrees with his conclusions.

Contrary to Milne’s contention that the Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service support his position, both of those agencies along with the Nisqually and Squaxin Island Tribes have publicly called for estuary restoration. They’ve recognized that the only way for Budd Inlet to come into compliance with the Clean Water Act is by removing the dam.

Cutting the Deschutes River off from its estuary was an environmental boondoggle in 1951 when it was foisted on the people of our region by the state Department of Transportation with little study and no public process. Since then, the state of Washington has been a terrible steward of this unmitigated (literally) environmental blight.

Despite Milne’s cavalier dismissal, the Legislature needs to fully fund the environmental impact study (EIS) before any improvements can be made to Capitol Lake including those that Milne supports. If he has access to scientific evidence to support his position, Milne should get it reviewed by responsible peers and make it available to the public. If not, he should support the current EIS process and stop confusing people with “alternative facts.”

This story was originally published April 11, 2017 at 6:31 PM with the headline "EIS necessary step for Capitol Lake."