Lake Supports Chinook Salmon Run

The CLIPA plan gives priority to dredging the northern-most basin to help improve the salmon rearing conditions for the Chinook run.

The salmon that spawn and return to this area were introduced after Capitol Lake was created. The annual returns of over 50 generations are specifically adapted to Capitol Lake's unique features which serve as a rearing area, feeding ground and transition zone.

The distinct population should benefit from restoring and rehabilitating the lake through maintenance dredging and planting of native vegetation.

Intermittent dredging of Capitol Lake is needed to maintain the lake and protect lower Budd Inlet. Since 1986 Capitol Lake has been neglected and is filling up with sediment.

Cost Comparisons

The 50-year plan outlined by CLIPA lets us keep and manage the lake for less than $48 million. It includes a public-private partnership to ensure a watershed-wide coordinated, sustainable management solution.

This is in contrast to an estuary option of approximately $150 million which does not include stakeholder cooperation or Deschutes watershed management needs.

The estuary option also does not consider the long-term costs of dredging the entire lower Budd Inlet once the 5^th Avenue dam is removed and large amounts of sediment from the Deschutes River fill the most southern tip of Puget Sound.

The CLIPA plan also allows for phased implementation to accommodate the current economic uncertainties.

Support from the Legislative Arena... 

In testimony earlier this session, Rep. Chris Reykdal expressed his support...

[Capitol Lake] should have been maintained over the last several decades, and the state of Washington walked away from that commitment. We are at a near crisis. We have a risk to our downtown, we have a risk to our entire management of that lake, and with that comes tremendous environmental impacts.

If we focus on interests, with the supreme interests being environmental protection, economic development downtown, respecting the fact that we have sunk costs already into a tremendous landscape, and the overall aesthetics of the capitol campus, I believe we can get to a place where we can maintain it as a lake and meet the highest standard of environmental protection.