The Department of Enterprise Services (DES) presented an update to the Port of Olympia Commission about the Deschutes Estuary project on Monday, September 9.
The presentation is a briefing on a proposed interlocal agreement between the various partners involved in a multi-decade effort to remove the 5th Avenue Dam and restore Capitol Lake into an estuary. The commission will vote on September 23 about whether to sign the agreement.
Among the questions raised by the commissioners during the meeting was the role of Olympia’s private marinas in dredging activities once the 5th Avenue Dam has been removed.
Dredging will be a crucial component of the project, as additional sediment will flow into Budd Inlet once the dam has been removed.
Sarah Reich, an environmental consultant for the project, said that according to the results of numerical modeling, dredging would have to be done every six years near the areas of the West Bay marinas and every 12 years on the port vessel berths.
The project partners will share the costs of the dredging activities, so a payment schedule was developed to see how much each of the partners will contribute annually until 2050, which is when the proposed agreement terminates.
Commissioner Amy Evans Harding inquired why the schedule of contributions from the private marinas is yet to be determined when contributions from all the other parties are already projected.
According to the proposed agreement, the marinas are already conducting dredging to maintain their berths, so they will not contribute funding for the costs of additional dredging once the dam has been removed.
What the marinas will contribute to the project is $15.5 million. This figure is what they are estimated to spend on dredging until 2050 even if the dam were not removed.
Reich said that conversations with the marinas are still ongoing. A separate agreement will have to be formed between DES and the marinas to determine how the marinas will share the $15.5 million.
The agreement specifies that the private marinas refer to Olympia Yacht Club, Fiddlehead Marina, Martin Marina, and One Tree Island Marina.
Harding also asked what the Port should expect in terms of sharing dredging costs after 2050. The commissioner was concerned that costs would continue after the agreement and that the Port would have the most need for dredging.
“We will also have to be answering to our community, as far as those private marinas are concerned, if that's not happening regularly enough,” Harding said adding, “What's a reasonable expectation as far as sharing the costs beyond the timeline?”
Reich responded that there is a provision in the agreement that requires the group to come together before the contract ends to figure out what comes next.
“Part of that is, I would assume, would be learning about what has happened and how has it been working. But the intent is to make sure that the group comes together to talk intentionally and deliberately before it expires,” Reich said.
The port is projected to contribute $8.6 million for dredging during the interlocal agreement.
The overall dredging cost is projected at $66.4 million. Reich mentioned that this amount is based on 2022 dollars, with an annual 4.5% increase factored in until 2050.
None of the project partners, except for DES, is expected to fund the actual removal of the dam and other construction and restoration costs. The construction phase of the project is expected to start in 2027; however, dam removal would not occur in the early 2030s, as the port is still conducting the remediation of Budd Inlet, which is a separate project but will be crucial to the removal of the dam.
Other entities involved in the project are Olympia, Tumwater, Thurston County, LOTT Clean Water Alliance, and Squaxin Island Tribe.
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JnNwmn
The Deschutes Basin has filled with sediment from developments, logging and natural runoff. If there were Impact Fees on Development then the new construction would help pay for the dredging costs.
5 days ago Report this
bonaro
They are estimating that the marinas will need to dredge sediment every 6 years and the Port every 12. That is a pretty big cost to push off of this project.
Capitol lake was designed to be a sediment trap but the State has refused to do periodic dredging as was intended.
That is why the lake is now shallow and choked with weeds
5 days ago Report this
Boatyarddog
If we Do the right thing and close the Marine Terminal we could save Budd inlet and the Cost to Dredge that area.
It's a Dead Cow!
4 days ago Report this
Yeti1981
@JnNwmn - impact fees are passed on to the consumer and everyone else in the form of increased costs on housing. Impact fees are a relic of planning doctrine that should be forgotten.
3 days ago Report this
BevBassett
About 10 years ago when I was closely watching the Port, from one year to the next in about 2014, a multi-million dollar budget item simply disappeared from the Port budget from one year to the next... It was for dredging.
Anyway, not only is the uber-shallow Marine Terminal in near constant need of dredging in order to function at a big annual loss, The Olympia Yacht Club gets silted as well--and they are the primary reason that the dam wasn't removed a long time ago. Both the MT and The Yacht Club have had extremely generous taxpayer support over the years despite the taxpayers getting nothing in return but more taxation decade after decade while the losses went on eternally and everlastingly and forevermore. Many good people have despaired as special interests prevailed unceasingly despite our best efforts failing to stop the corruption.
The problem with dredging these sediments is the dioxin in high concentrations that are massively expensive to dispose of. And I would argue that it is unneighborly to dump our dioxin anywhere else. Dioxin concentrations in Budd Inlet in some areas are as high as Love Canal. Plus, to make matters worse, we already have a big pile of toxic dredge spoils that will spill eventually with sea level rise. And beyond that, there is likely more dioxin pollution still actively coming from places that we haven't looked into to get the facts about...
The most rational sensible logical healthy way to proceed with sediment management after the dam is removed is to close the Marine Terminal and send the Yacht Club packing and to just leave the dioxin where it is and to let the new sediments cover over the dioxin. And that will work if we have no other undiscovered dioxin contamination sources which are currently active.
Yesterday at 1:36 AM Report this
Boatyarddog
Thanks, Beverly B.
Great Info.! Olympia needs That.
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