Deschutes Estuary Restoration A Multi Benefit Restoration Project in the South Puget Sound 1080p 1

Part of all Washingtonians' identity is water. Capitol Lake has been a big problem for a while. There was a time when you could take ships all the way up to the lower falls there where the brewery is. You could canoe, you could kayak, you could boat, you could swim. You can't do any of that stuff today. You're not even supposed to touch the water. This dam destroyed a habitat, started to hold invasive species, pollution from the local area, and essentially kill off native plants and animals. And then this has perpetuated over nearly 50 years. Currently, the public doesn't have access to the lake. It's a beautiful space to come and look, but it is restricted due to the invasive species. It is in the city of Olympia boundaries. It is traditional lands of the Squaxin Island tribe. It touches parts of the Tumwater community, as well as our regional wastewater partner lot and the Port of Olympia. We are one big ecosystem, and when one part is sick and not healthy, it affects all the parts. Ecology modeling has identified that the single most important action to Bud Inlet is dam removal. Capitol Lake and the Fifth Avenue Dam are the single largest contributor to water quality impairments in Bud Inlet. Water quality is very important to a healthy ecosystem, the fish, and other aquatic species. There are high nutrients in the water in Capitol Lake that cause a lot of vegetation growth during the summer. At the end of summer, this vegetation dies off and it discharges into West Bay. It decomposes in those marine waters, and that process of decomposition uses up oxygen. We need oxygen in the system for our salmon and other species. The Fifth Avenue Dam also restricts fish passage into Percival Creek and the Deschutes River. Conditions behind the dam and across present-day Capitol Lake are significantly shallowed by more than 2 million cubic yards of sediment that have accumulated since the dam was constructed. Capitol Lake is infested with New Zealand mud snail. They're a little teeny tiny snail. They most commonly occur in fresh water, but they can tolerate a variety of conditions. Here in the Puget Sound, there really aren't any known predators, so they're a tough species to actually get rid of fully. The entire downtown sits on the shoreline. We have 450 businesses in our downtown. We have a significant wastewater facility that's located right off the shoreline in the downtown core. So we've got to address sea level rise. The goal of the Deschutes Estuary Restoration Project is to restore 260 acres back to a natural estuary environment, stretching over two miles of shoreline. To do that, we have to remove a dam that was constructed in the 1950s. Removing the Fifth Avenue Dam will reduce max flood elevations by one foot alone. The project is also going to increase resiliency to sea level rise by constructing living shorelines to hold back floodwaters and avoid the increasing impacts of flooding on critical urban infrastructure. It seems easy enough to remove the dam and create the estuary, but there's a lot of interconnected pieces. Number one is we have contamination in Bud Inlet. Our community is very environmentally focused, and the Port really wants to be part of cleaning that up and restoring the health of the ecosystem out there in Bud Inlet. So we're partnered with the Department of Ecology on the cleanup. After cleanup is completed in West Bay, the dam can be removed to allow the free flow of water and sediment. When we dredge the channel, we will use the clean sediment that's coming from that channel, putting it on the shorelines and using it as a way to enhance the habitat that is really important to fish and other aquatic species. The habitat berm that's part of this project is intended to elevate the area around the perimeter of the lake. And with that elevation, it'll create resiliency both for significant weather events and for climate resilience. Another really important component is maintaining the transportation corridor. The Fourth and Fifth Avenue bridges are an important east-west connection for our community. They're also an important emergency services connection. The Fifth Avenue bridge sits right on top of the dam. It's a much older bridge. It doesn't have great bike-ped connections. So there's this great opportunity with the construction of a new Fifth Avenue bridge to better address multimodal travel from east to west. The existing bridge and road are considered to be a Tier 2 safety corridor, which has a history of high accident rates. The new bridge that will be constructed and place the dam will address the persistent safety concerns for pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorists. It'll create safe roadways and pedestrian walkways for people who live and frequent this area. It'll bring an opportunity for recreation. And not only that, but have an opportunity to educate others. It can be an opportunity to embrace the tribe and the original peoples there. One of the things I would expect in a restored Deschutes estuary is that the variety and quantities of the fish and the wildlife and the plants that we see will be greater. There are some changes that need to happen in the bodies of the fish to change from being primarily a freshwater fish to being a saltwater fish, or vice versa. And estuaries provide not only physically more passage, but they provide the space, the time, the gradients of saltwater for the fish to be able to make those transitions. This is a unique opportunity to open an entire watershed and recreate a healthy estuarine habitat. Removal of the dam and creation of this habitat will support the abundance and survival of Puget Sound salmon and steelhead and can unlock additional benefits to future restoration upstream. There are also meaningful economic benefits that will be realized with the estuary's restoration, from hundreds of local jobs during construction to protection of the critical infrastructure. Dam removal is the only action to fully address water quality violations in Bud Inlet, which then reduces the need for costly upgrades to regional water treatment systems. Estuary restoration protects downtown Olympia, which helps maintain a working, more resilient, and economically viable waterfront. This project is the perfect example of what we define as a multi-benefit project of infrastructure, economy, environment, and climate resilience. And I think that resonates with all of us. We're a part of it, this land, this water, these trees. We have an opportunity to restore our environment to the best that we can, get salmon back. We're restoring our culture and language, and that brings me back to a place of pride and happiness and proud to be Squaxin. What I really appreciated about this partnership is our ability to set individual needs aside to be able to come up with a better solution that meets the collective good. That's good government. It brings about opportunity for more interaction with wildlife. The potential for our local schools to come and see a healthy salmon run going through while looking up at our legislative building at the same time. Truly, it becomes a space that's more open to creativity. It makes me hopeful to think about a future where people will still be here. City of Olympia is here, and we can provide more benefits to fish and wildlife and have that feel like an amenity to the community, like a place that people want to be. Very excited on a personal level just to see sort of the problem that is Capitol Lake solved. But I also think it's really cool to do an estuary restoration of this magnitude in the municipality. I stand out on the waterfront. I see the potential of connection to nature, to tribal history, stories that need to be told. I see this as a tremendous opportunity for us to come together as a community and create the type of future that we're all proud of.