Tell state representatives listed below to

Vote No on HB 1938

Capitol lake is not doing well, its vital signs continue to decline. It is dying.

.

Not only is the lake currently closed to public use due to a pernicious New Zealand mud snail, but in the summertime invasive weeds and algae cover the lake in a thick green mat of stagnant muck. What’s worse is that in coming decades the dam will need costly upgrades due to age and sea level rise. And worst of all: erosion upriver is dumping huge loads of sediment onto the lake bed which threatens to fill in the lake basin entirely.  Meantime, water quality in the lake is very bad, contributing to the poor conditions in Budd Inlet.

All of these problems combined are an enormous liability that are likely to cost hundreds of millions of dollars to mitigate.

Eight years of study by the state concluded that the most cost-effective solution was to remove the dam and dredge the lake back to a self-maintaining estuary. This means the Capitol Lake of today will be completely full of water at high tide twice a day, reflecting the state capitol 70% of the time. During low tide the lake basin will drain out similar to the small basin on the northwest side of Olympia’s 4th ave. bridge.

This restored circulation between freshwater and salt water will not only eliminate all the stagnant floating muck and invasive snails, but the mixing of freshwater and saltwater water will restore fertile plankton communities, which are the basis of our ecosystem’s food chain. This means more bald eagles, salmon, trout, rare species of birds and bugs; this means the entire food chain is restored. This means fishing and many other recreation opportunities will be abundant again.

A restored estuary also means that at high tide kayakers and boaters will again get to experience the historic passage that canoes and ships used to travel to just below Tumwater Falls, the original southern-most terminus of Puget Sound. .

Of course, this vision will not come to pass if HB 1938 becomes law. This bill is an anti-environmental attempt to override the state’s estuary restoration planning process in a way that requires the lake to be forever managed as our already failing “lake environment”, foreclosing any other options. This bill also attempts to override environmental law and procedure by taking the authority to manage the lake away from the state’s environmental experts and giving that authority to the state experts on building maintenance and furniture repair.

Please call the committee members and bill sponsors below and tell them:

No on HB 1938

Sam Hunt – (360) 786-7992

Chris Reykdal – (360) 786-7940

Representative	Room	Phone
Hunt, Sam (D) Chair	LEG 438B	(360) 786-7992
Appleton, Sherry (D) Vice Chair	LEG 132F	(360) 786-7934
Taylor, David (R) *	MOD A 205	(360) 786-7874
Overstreet, Jason (R) **	MOD A 102	(360) 786-7980
Alexander, Gary (R)	LEG 426B	(360) 786-7990
Condotta, Cary (R)	LEG 122B	(360) 786-7954
Darneille, Jeannie (D)	LEG 436B	(360) 786-7974
Dunshee, Hans (D)	MOD F 103	(360) 786-7804
Hurst, Christopher (D)	MOD B 105	(360) 786-7866
McCoy, John (D)	LEG 132A	(360) 786-7864
Miloscia, Mark (D)	LEG 437A	(360) 786-7898

*Ranking Minority Member  **Asst. Ranking Minority Member

Summary of the Bill:

HB 1938 – DIGEST Requires the state capitol committee to provide the management, protection, preservation, and coordination of Capitol lake as a lake environment.
Requires the department of general administration to coordinate with the jurisdictions with interest within the Deschutes watershed and Budd Inlet to ensure that overall aesthetic, recreational, sediment management, and environmental benefits are achieved for Capitol lake as part of the Deschutes watershed.