| Ultimately, the entire universe…has to be understood as a single undivided whole. David Bohm |
| SEPA regulations – WAC 197-11-060 3(b) (b) Proposals or parts of proposals that are related to each other closely enough to be, in effect, a single course of action shall be evaluated in the same environmental document… agencies may find it useful to define the proposals in one of the following ways: (A) Geographically, which may include actions occurring in the same general location, such as a body of water, region, or metropolitan area; |
Lower Budd Inlet is a complex estuary ecosystem where several streams converge; the Deschutes River through Capitol Lake, Moxlie Creek in the East Bay, and Schneider Creek in the West Bay all provide fresh water to Budd Inlet. Black Lake also drains into it through the Black Lake ditch and Percival Creek.
The once flourishing Budd Inlet is now a degraded water body with a small fraction of the life it once supported. Despite their stated purposes, our environmental laws, such as the Washington Shoreline Management Act of 1971 and the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA), have not protected it.
In spite of many years of study, a massive Environmental Impact Study (EIS) for the Deschutes Estuary with a preferred alternative of restoring it and a newly proposed Interlocal Cooperation Agreement (ICA) to guide the restoration process for the next 25 years, several interrelated projects are proceeding separately on Budd Inlet. These ignore the natural interconnectedness of its ecology and the basic legal principle of comprehensive environmental review–to consider the cumulative impacts of different projects on an ecosystem, especially a waterway.
The Deschutes Estuary Restoration Project, acting through the novel means of a new Interlocal Cooperation Agreement (ICA) plans to remove the 5th Ave dam, transforming Capitol Lake back into an estuary and guiding dredging projects up to 2050. (See article in this WIP – “Lawsuit Challenges Implementation of Deschutes Estuary Project.”)
The Port of Olympia’s Budd Inlet cleanup plan aims to “clean up and restore Budd Inlet” by removing contaminated sediment from the former industrial waterfront. The site at the northern tip of the Port peninsula formerly occupied by Cascade Pole left a legacy of dioxin contamination worse than at Love Canal. The Cleanup Plan also includes dredging Swantown Marina in the East Bay. (See article in this WIP- “Budd Inlet-You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.”)
The Port’s East Bay Redevelopment Site is under an Agreed Order with the Department of Ecology for toxic cleanup with a future view to construct a Marine Center and other amenities. This area, which encompasses the Children’s Museum, has high levels of dioxins and PCBs in the sediment. Inadequate signage warns people not to walk on the shoreline or touch the water.
The West Bay Restoration Assessment purports to enhance the ecological functions of West Bay along West Bay Drive. Drafted by engineers, not scientists, there are no specifics as to how the ecological functions of West Bay would be enhanced. It was never reviewed under SEPA.
West Bay Yards and West Bayview Landing are private proposals for multistory housing developments along the West Bay waterfront that will effectively make restoration on those parts of the shoreline impossible.
West Bay Yards on the old Hardel site on West Bay Drive would put 478 luxury apartment units in buildings 65’ tall directly on the waterfront. It was given a green light by the Olympia City Council in 2021 when it approved a Development Agreement without a proper SEPA review (See WIP article “A Development Agreement Without a Development”.) It proposes adding fill to relocate the ordinary high water mark–burying existing aquatic habitat, impairing wetland function and eliminating potential groundwater recharge, all in violation of the Shoreline Management Act.
West Bayview Landing Senior Living Apartments, a proposal for 242 residential units in 3 residential towers, would build directly over the Schneider Creek estuary, violating Olympia’s Shoreline Master Program, which has a policy “[t]o ensure, at a minimum, no net loss of shoreline ecological functions and processes…”
All of these projects are connected through their impacts to Budd Inlet, yet none of them have considered their overall cumulative impacts. None of them actually restore the tide flats, salt marsh and overhanging vegetation that constitute a living estuary. Instead, there is talk of a living shoreline, which may be aesthetically pleasing, but not true restoration.
The purpose of SEPA to “promote efforts which will prevent or eliminate damage to the environment and biosphere” appears sadly lacking. Instead, Budd Inlet is being piecemealed to death, largely outside of the view of the public.
Since at least 2005, the city of Olympia has not issued a single EIS or Determination of Significance (DS) under SEPA. Instead, even the most dense housing projects are approved with a Mitigated Determination of Non-Significance (MDNS) that requires much less environmental review.
Is it any wonder that now you have to wait a long time before seeing a few birds down at the waterfront on Budd Inlet?
Esther Kronenberg is a regular contributor on water issues for WIP.
See “Lawsuit Challenges Implementation of Deschutes River Estuary Project” and “Budd Inlet-You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone” in this issue of WIP for more on the piecemeal environmental review of Budd Inlet.
Esther Grace Kronenberg is a frequent contributor to Works in Progress