Tumwater city council has authorized Mayor Debbie Sullivan to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) outlining the initial agreements for the Deschutes Estuary project during their meeting held yesterday, October 18.
The MOU is non-binding, as the parties involved will continue to develop interlocal agreements to determine how the project will be implemented. The MOU indicates a shared commitment between those affected by the project as the Washington State Department of Enterprise Services (DES) moves to submit the project to the legislature.
“[The MOU] is a description of the progress made to date toward a potential binding agreement, documenting areas of broad conceptual agreement, describing remaining issues, and indicating the shared commitment to good faith discussion to reach agreement on the remaining issues,” the document stated.
DES will lead the design, permitting, and construction of the estuary.
During the initial phases, DES will coordinate with Tumwater to design the South Basin boardwalks to ensure compliance with design standards. The boardwalk will be transferred to the city after the project is completed.
Tumwater will contribute $2,865,000 for the project, which will be used for maintenance dredging after removing the Capitol Lake Dam. Other parties in the MOU, such as Thurston County, Washington State, and LOTT Clean Water Alliance, will contribute the same amount.
City administrator John Doan said that staff proposed to fund their part in the project through a series of increases to stormwater utility fees. The increases would be 0.5% per year from 2023-2026, 1.0% per year from 2027-2030, 0.5% per year from 2031-2036, and 0.5% per even-numbered year until 2050.
“What it does is leverage 200 plus million dollars worth of state dollars… to turn the lake into its desired future of a managed estuary,” Doan said.
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DanaMadsen
So once again the fox is in the henhouse and the taxpayers are being fleeced again. DES is leading the project? This is the same state agency that has historically done NOTHING in the way of maintenance of the lake. I've lived in this town for 30 years and I have yet to see the State of Washington do a lick of work on the lake. Now it has deteriorated to a swampy mess with mud and weeds choking it precisely because maintenance has been ignored by the State. The solution? A taxpayer funded mega-project to turn it back into a "managed estuary" i.e. mudflat. I suppose on-going maintenance will be by the same agency that has ignored the lake since the dam was built.
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