I feel a little like Bing Crosby interrupting the Ed Harris TV Show, when he turns to camera 2 and says “but this is a message going out to the men of the 151st Division who served under…” and etc, and etc.
I’m turning to camera 2 and saying, “Hey, if you live in the tag end of Puget Sound, and have an opinion about the lake vs estuary argument, this message is for you.”
The body of water we’re talking about isn’t large in itself, but depending on how you view ecology, its reach runs miles inland. The current body of water is moderately unhealthy, unloved and underused. Once upon a time, it served as a lovely reflecting pool for our cliff-top Capitol. Prior to that, it was a free-flowing riverine system, brackish with the flow of Budd Inlet salt water in one direction, fresh water from the Deschutes River coming downhill from the other. Salmon (and doubtless many other creatures) thought the combination was swell. Washington makes an active effort to restore fish-bearing waterways whenever possible.
And herein lies the collision. Not between fresh vs salt water, but between two highly opinionated groups of humans.
What are we arguing about again?
For as long as we’ve lived in Olympia, two implacable foes — the We Love Salmon People and the We Love Beauty Tribe — have been fighting. Their quarrel is about what to do with that body of water at the hang-toe-nail of Budd Inlet. The Salmon crowd advocates a return to nature, and promotes the restoration of the entire basin to an estuary habitat. All manner of marine creatures would be happy to make their way through the … um… That’s the problem. Estuaries in their natural form are usually stinky mudflats twice a day (the Moon permitting). In the dry seasons, the river won’t provide a lot of natural flushing of smelliness or mucky tidal flats. It may be the point of the estuary exercise: This is what estuaries are like. Deal with it, folks! But most estuaries don’t run smack dab through the center of state capitals, incidentally perfuming the halls of the legislature with more muck than the typical lobbyist imports in a year.
And what of the countering argument?
The City Beautiful was in full blossom when Washington’s state capital buildings were designed. The reflecting pool might be many many feet below the bluff where the buildings stand but it had an moral purpose. It was intended to provide a calm, even ornamental, oasis below the domes and Greek-inspired temples of justice. It was meant to be reflective, in every sense of the word, setting for the state’s business.
The We Love Beauty folks want to see the present-day, rather contaminated, pool restored to its original purpose. Reflection, rather than ducks. Ornament, rather than oysters, you might say.
This makes the Salmon People see red. (Not red tides. We don’t really get them in Budd Inlet, not at present. But with climate change, those bets are off.)
Everyone has a problem
The estuary advocates sneer at the beauty folks, calling them shallow. Well, yes, the ornamental basin is rather weak in the Purpose for Being department. But so is the estuary — shallow, that is — hence the evil vision of the mud flats.
The beauty-is-best advocates ask who will want to walk, jog, fly kites or play with their dogs, children or significant others anywhere near here when the tide is out. If a state capital measures some usefulness in public amenities beyond sturdy lawmaking, the estuary will attract budding marine biologists. The rest of us? Maybe not so much. At least twice a day. More so when the neaps tides occur.
But there’s a way out — or through, at any rate
I went down to the Farmer’s Market in Olympia last weekend. This was a very rare visit for me these days. Since March 2020, I’ve kept away from anywhere crowds gather — indoors or out — if I don’t absolutely have to be there. But I had to run downtown for something else, a parking space opened up at the open-air, fruit-stand, end of things, and I made a snap decision to stop.
Once armed with nectarines, tomatoes and herbs (my little pot withered in the heat wave), and about to depart, I noticed a quiet signboard. Since no people were about, I sidled up to take a look.
And there I learned about a group of sensible pragmatists willing to make everyone a little unhappy, in the interests of making most of Olympia happier. Happier, because ordinary people wouldn’t have to listen to the two camps of Oly waterway development continue arguing to a standstill. Year after year after year.
So in the interests of forwarding a middle ground between muddy water (if healthy) and decorative water (if less ecologically friendly), I recommend you check this campaign out.
Do the DELI
The Capitol Lake-Deschutes Estuary web page has information about the two existing camps and the group’s proposed alternative: a dual solution.
Most of the waterway returns to natural estuary. It’ll take a lot of restoration, kicking out non-native inhabitants (snails, I mean, not ex-Californians like us), sculpting the river banks and replanting native grasses and water-plants. Yes, it’ll be a bit stinky part of the day/month/year. But think of all the happy salmon, now able to swim upstream, past Tumwater Falls and the derelict brewery… Well, wherever fish like to go for a night out.
But this dual solution also carves out a circular basin with a new retaining wall, to make a freshwater reflecting pool that more than echoes the original plan. Yes, building the new wall will be costly, but half the circle’s already there. And the whole pond needs restoration down to bedrock anyway. Best of all, the proponents of the dual solution claim an artesian well could provide enough water to keep the new reflecting pond clean. Clean enough to swim — or at least for people to paddle and cool their feet on a hot summer day.
And given the changes in climate already on Olympia’s doorstep, maybe even state legislators could see advantages in that.
Here’s the video put out by the Do The DELI folks. And a reminder to comment on the public comments page of the Environmental Impact Statement. That door closes on August 29, 2021.