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While I think that the posters do have their points, both pro and con, I would ask that they go and see what happens when a river is allowed to run free. If you go up to the where the Elwha dams were removed, it didn't take the river more than a few weeks to begin dumping sediment into the ocean (thereby creating new beach, which supports shorebirds, clams, etc. It carved a new riverbed, providing red alder and other species of vegetation to grow,.

A much closer example is Beatty Creek, off of Delphi Road. . In 2005, the neighbors of this salmon creek removed a dam that supported a bridge. Thurston Conservation District kicked in for the removal of the dam and a new bridge to be built. Willows, red alder and other species were planted on the banks and a few root wads thrown in. It was thought the creek would have to be dredged.

Nope. Mom Nature said, here. Hold my beer and watch this, and she brought down tons of gravel...which provided hiding spots for the salmon smolts that showed up in less than a month. The first one we named "Lucky" and I do hope he has returned to spawn by now.

Before it was an ugly pond. Now you have to look hard to find it...it's shaded and beautiful and provides homes for insects, salmon, and other creatures.

As for swimming in the Capitol Lake? Unless the city has done a lot of treatment, I wouldn't. Having done water samples..again this was a decade ago...the e.coli counts were off the charts. No thanks, I won't swim in it.

Give the estuary a chance, please? Because if nothing else, it may serve to reduce the amount of water that will be flooding Olympia in the very near future. Remember the flooding from last months King tide? Because Olympia didn't think to put up signs saying "CLOSED Water over Roadway", I blundered into a pond at the roundabout in front of the Farmer's Market. It washed my car's floorboards. It stretched from just below Dockside Bistro clear to the roundabout. That flooding is just a foretaste. It's going to happen again.