The Olympia Brewing Company produced Olympia’s most famous export, Olympia beer, from its founding in 1896 by Leopold Schmidt till it closed its doors in 2003. Situated on the Deschutes River, the original brewhouse gave way to the more modern brewery site south of Custer Avenue built in 1906 featuring its distinctive Old Brewhouse Tower.
The potential for rehabilitating what had become a blight and environmental hazard is beginning to be realized as Tumwater develops the area as the Brewery District, hoping to create a cultural and commercial center. But the most valuable feature of the Brewery District to Tumwater is the same as it was when the beer started flowing in 1896 – “It’s the water.”
How much water is used?
Tumwater’s drinking water comes from 14 supply wells in 3 well fields. They serve 7900 service connections with a capacity of 7.9 million gallons a day (MGD). Usage has increased from the 2 MGD used in 1990 to an average of 3 MGD in 2016, with projections that demand will double to 6 MGD by 2035. Dan Smith, Tumwater’s Water Resources Director, has stated that Tumwater could also accommodate the proposed Swire Coca-Cola bottling plant which would use about 10% of Tumwater’s total drinking water resource.
The 12/12/22 agreement between the Port of Olympia and Swire has been criticized by many in the public as an example of a large international conglomerate buying up a small city’s local resources at public expense. The agreement leases 95 acres of airport property for 75 years, and includes a requirement for the Port to pay up to $9.5 million to Tumwater in mitigation fees for the expected loss of habitat for Thurston County endangered species. If the deal goes through, Tumwater would be legally required to provide Swire with water just as it does for all its water customers for the duration of the lease.
How much water is there and who can get it?
A memorandum from Montrose Environmental, a consultant hired by Swire, obtained through a public records request by the author, casts doubt on the city’s capacity to provide water quantity and quality requirements. (See Sidebar) It noted that during the summer of 2022, Tumwater was close to its peak capacity of about 6.5MGD. The consultant advised Swire “that the City will need to implement their identified water resource augmentation projects well ahead of Swire coming online in 2026. “ It appears Swire is not convinced by Tumwater’s assurances of adequate water.
According to Patrick Soderberg, Tumwater’s Water Resources & Sustainability Program manager, and Carrie Gillum, Senior Water Resources Specialist, Swire has not formally applied to the City for water, an action that usually comes early in any proposed development action. With the City of Tumwater operating close to peak capacity during the summer and no new water sources coming online in the next few years, Swire may decide to look elsewhere for its bottling plant.
How the Brewery can help Tumwater grow
Enter the Brewery. The water rights previously used by the Brewery are critical to increasing Tumwater’s water capacity. In 2009, the cities of Olympia, Lacey and Tumwater paid $4.5 million for the Brewery’s water rights, and recently Lacey agreed to sell its rights. The Brewery Wellfield has about $3million of associated liabilities to become operational. Mr. Soderberg stated that Tumwater is soliciting bids for drillers this summer with hopes to drill by the winter. Production from these wells could be operational 2-5 years after drilling when a treatment plant and piping are complete.
Legal obstacles also exist. Since all water rights in every Puget Sound watershed have been allocated, water is not legally available without mitigation. According to Mike Gallagher, Water Resources section manager for Ecology’s Southwest Region, Tumwater will need to do a tentative determination of the extent and validity of the water rights that answers 4 questions. Will the water be for beneficial use? Is it physically and legally available? Will it impair other senior water rights, including stream flow? And is it in the public interest?
Though Tumwater staff state that ownership of the Brewery water rights preclude the need for Ecology permits, Mr. Gallagher explained that if the water rights have not been used for more than 5 years, there is a risk of them being relinquished back to the state, or perhaps the impacts of withdrawals to stream flow in the Deschutes or a downstream senior water user will curtail use of some of the water rights. This won’t be answered until Tumwater conducts a tentative determination of the extent and validity of the water rights and the Department of Ecology agrees or not. As Mr. Gallagher pointed out, this can become a contentious process.
Who Pays for New Water Sources?
The Montrose memo also noted the increased scrutiny Swire would get if City water rates increased dramatically due to new water supply projects. When asked about how the City calculates rates, Mr. Soderberg stated that a consultant is currently constructing a data base containing all expected and future costs to create an equitable rate system. Would Swire pay a higher rate for its water as a new commercial customer than longtime residents?
Mr. Gallagher commented that as cities grow, the demand for new water increases and it becomes harder to get. For smaller cities, drilling wells and determining their yields is a heavy investment to make, as is going through the lengthy process of abiding by Ecology and Department of Health laws and regulations.
How’s the Water Quality?
The Montrose memo asked for the City’s contingency plan for PFAs, (per & polyfluoroalkyl) the “forever” chemicals which have been detected at low levels in the City water supply. PFAs are the latest chemicals of emerging concern to be found in many public water supply systems, but this isn’t the first time Tumwater’s wells have been contaminated.
In 1993, trichloroethane (TCE) and tetrachloroethene (PCE) above the maximum contaminant level were detected in 3 wells at the Palermo Wellfield, Tumwater’s oldest and most important water source located just south of the Tumwater Valley Athletic Club, leading to its inclusion on EPA’s Superfund site. The TCE originated from the Department of Transportation Testing Laboratory and the PCE from the Southgate Dry Cleaners. These known carcinogens found in the soil and groundwater of the area are among those used at Camp Lejeune, the subject of a national liability lawsuit.
Tumwater removed the 3 impacted wells from service and began using the Bush Wellfield in southwest Tumwater to replace much of the drinking water formerly pumped from the Palermo Wellfield. Treatment facilities to remove the contaminants from groundwater wells and the soil have been installed by Tumwater and the EPA and a treatment lagoon cleans the water prior to discharging it into the nearby Deschutes River. A review of the status of the cleanup is required every 5 years.
The fifth review, completed in June 2023, found that though the primary release of TCE had stopped, residual contamination continues to downgrade the groundwater. The extent of the plumes of TCE and PCE in the groundwater have still not been clearly delineated nor has the extent of PCE present in the soil gas beneath the Southgate mall. At present, no TCE or PCE has been detected in the drinking water supply after treatment. The EPA hopes to determine the extent of the contamination by September 2025.
To prevent contamination, Tumwater’s 2016 Wellhead Protection Plan restricts activities that can operate within a Wellhead Protection Area, (WHPA) and lists more than 200 potential contamination sources to city wells in addition to septic systems. Ms. Gillum and one field staff person coordinate with Thurston County to monitor these sources and perform inspections. Tumwater’s monitoring and pollution control program has tripled in size in the last 6 years to proactively keep pace with ongoing threats to the public drinking water. Tumwater advises those with severely compromised immune systems to consult with their doctor before consuming the City water.
How will Climate Change Impact the Water?
Our area is expected to receive about the same amount of rain falling during the year, but it will come as more intense downpours in the winter. Intense rains are less likely to percolate through soil to the groundwater, and much more likely to increase stormwater runoff into streams, pulling surface contaminants with it. Longer, drier summers will lead to declining water levels in aquifers, declining soil moisture causing more trees and plants to die, and declining water in streams and wetlands, harming aquatic life and general stream health. The League of Women Voters of Thurston County’s May 2023 report, Thurston County’s Freshwater Future: Adaptation will be a MUST, offers strategies needed to protect our freshwater sources and urges all levels of government to address these challenges now.
The Palermo Wellfield, which is in continuity with the Deschutes River, is at greater risk of contamination and loss of production if low summer river flows affect water levels in the shallow aquifer.
Still, Tumwater’s 2020 Water System Plan concludes that the risk of negative impacts to local aquifers of the Tumwater area are low. Ms. Gillum reported typical seasonal changes in the water table and resilient aquifers that recharge with a good rain year.
To protect its aquifers, Tumwater works with property owners to better manage wetlands and incentivize conservation. Four projects to increase plantings along the river corridor are in the works for 2024-25 and OlyEcosystems is conserving 367 acres at the Deschutes River Preserve.
What about the Strategic Groundwater Reserve?
WIP’s June issue about the Strategic Reserve for the State Capitol described it as forgotten code, as indeed it is. Tumwater water resources staff were unaware of it until they read the article.
Ecology’s Mike Gallagher stated that Ecology’s current rules made subsequent to the Strategic Reserve code have created greater restrictions on use since any new water rights now have to be mitigated and cannot impact stream flow. These policies were necessitated by increasing demands for water over the years that have resulted in lower streamflows and declining groundwater levels in some areas.
Mr. Gallagher also stated that a lot of the pumped water is returned to the aquifer by treatment plants like LOTT, which reclaims wastewater for beneficial uses. The downside – certain chemicals that cannot be removed through current treatment are injected into our deeper aquifers.
Our Freshwater Future Starts Now
One can hope that the assessments by Ecology and Tumwater of adequate potable water until 2038 are true, as Tumwater aggressively seeks new sources. We do know that thousands of chemical and other contaminants are daily flushed into the ground ending up in our drinking water aquifers and in marine habitat. We know EPA rules governing safe levels of chemicals are often made stricter with better information, as was done with TCE, and that much work needs to be done to ascertain the cumulative effects of this chemical storm on public health and the environment. We do know that intermittent streams are already drying up threatening fisheries, endangered species and stream health. And we do know that our population and development are increasing, but the amount of rain falling from the sky is not.
This new water reality is becoming increasingly clear, stirring proactive policies by Tumwater and other jurisdictions that will hopefully keep our water clean and abundant for future generations.
Esther Kronenberg is a regular contributor on water issues for WIP
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