CLAMP’S legacy biased against lake

I attended many CLAMP meetings, and I agree with John DeMeyer’s statements June 4 that the CLAMP process was “structured and administered to produce a recommendation to remove Olympia’s 5th Avenue dam”.

CLAMP leaders were strongly biased against Capitol Lake. They controlled information to insure that the Lake was misleadingly characterized as environmentally unsound, downplaying and ignoring its magnificent benefits for our community, our state, and the environment.

To be specific: minor, biologically meaningless Lake flaws were exaggerated as severe environmental threats. Out-of-date information was often used if it degraded the Lake. Collaboration with impartial academic water quality and habitat experts (Evergreen State College and University of Washington) was avoided. No agency with standing was allowed to defend the Lake’s enormously important attributes. Cherry picked opinions from state agencies and Tribe were proclaimed as unchallengeable. Mixing known toxins from Budd Inlet into Capitol Lake basin was never discussed. The odor problem was dismissed as irrelevant. A meaningful economic impact analysis of the lake and the Olympia waterfront was seen as a waste of dollars.

In short, the CLAMP process lacked balance and excluded vital public and expert input. As a result hundreds of millions of dollars might now be wasted to fix miniscule problems which exist only in the minds of regulatory purists.

Thank you to DeMeyer for his courage and Susan Ritter for her astute recognition of DeMeyer’s analysis.

This story was originally published August 23, 2017 at 2:37 PM with the headline "CLAMP’S legacy biased against lake."