The Department of Enterprise Services will host a public meeting about the long-term management of Capitol Lake from 9:30 to 11 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 29 at the 1500 Jefferson Street building in Olympia.

Capitol Lake is a 260-acre reservoir located in Olympia and Tumwater. Enterprise Services manages the lake as part of the 486-acre Capitol Campus.

The 2015 Legislature included language in the capital budget (see page 55, section Sec. 1095) directing Enterprise Services to make progress on reaching an agreement about the long-term management of Capitol Lake, building on the recommendations from the 2014 Ruckelshaus Center Situation Assessment report and other past work.

The Jan. 29 meeting will bring together multiple government agencies and other stakeholders with the overarching goal of working together as a body to find a path forward on whether to keep the existing lake, return it to an estuary – the area where freshwater from the Deschutes River would mix with saltwater of Puget Sound – or a hybrid of the two. Learn more about Capitol Lake management issues.

The purpose of the first meeting is to start a collaborative process, not to come to a final decision on the future of Capitol Lake.Since most of the meeting will likely be devoted to developing a framework for the committee’s future work, there will not be a public comment period at the Jan. 29 meeting.

The Legislature wants the committee to explore many issues, including:

• Identification of common goals for the future management of Capitol Lake.
• A plan to manage the accumulated river sediment in the lake.
• Identification of feasible future management alternatives, including hybrid approaches of a lake or estuary.
• A sustainable funding plan for future management alternatives.
• A shared governance structure to manage implementation of an immediate plan and oversee the water body over the long-term.

Enterprise Services must develop a report that summarizes the work of the committee and submit it to the Legislature by Jan. 1, 2017.

The 1500 Jefferson Street building is located between 14th Avenue and Maple Park Avenue in Olympia, just south of the roundabout. Get directions.

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