Capitol Lake would be a mudflat

I have listened to and read arguments for and against removing the dam that formed Capitol Lake. The June 1 letter titled “Estuary is a mudflat, really?” must be protested. She makes a false comparison with the estuary at Nisqually, alleging that the basin of what is now Capitol Lake is a “naturally occurring estuary,” which it is not. Before the dam it was, in fact, a mudflat, right up against Olympia’s downtown business district, and visually below our state Capitol campus.

I am one of the few people here who remember the reeking mudflats, which were not a free-flowing estuary, but a trapped area formed before my time by the artificial isthmus on which sit multiple businesses and Heritage Park. Removing the dam will cause the lake to revert to the mudflats; only removing the isthmus will create a true estuary.

The anti-Capitol Lake true believers like to fashion themselves as pro-environment, but they let their ideology prevent them from an unbiased assessment of the actual physical reality of the area that is now Capitol Lake. If you really want taxpayers to pay to buy out and remove Bayview, the Yacht Club, the Oyster House, and destroy Heritage Park and part of Percival Boardwalk, then be honest about it. Don’t pretend that removing the dam will create an estuary.

This story was originally published June 14, 2017 at 6:24 PM with the headline "Capitol Lake would be a mudflat."