So it seems people want to go ahead with starting the cycle of pesticide usage for Capitol Lake's weed problems. Whether this be good or bad I don't know. Does anyone know why they stopped allowing saltwater into the lake? It seems like a much better solution to dealing with the weeds than spending money on Trichlopyr.

http://www.theolympian.com/home/news/20040507/southsound/44435.shtml

Having grown up in the area, I'll tell you what I remember.........though I don't claim this to be absolute fact; just my recollection.

The lake was originally created for freshwater recreation. It used to be substantially deeper and was even dredged periodically. When the lake was deeper, the water stayed cooler and weeds were much less of an issue. I can remember cutting my teeth on trolling for kings on the south lake (nearest I-5) back in high school and experiencing 10-15 ft depths.......now your lucky to see 5 feet.

New factors came into play through the years:

1) Dredging was stopped because of cost.

2) Siltation from winter floods quickly shallowed the
lake thus allowing the establishment of weeds.

3) Warm water pollution from the then Olympia Brewery
not only contributed to warmer water but increased
the nutrient load which weeds love.

With the exception of the brewery shutting down, not much has changed. personnally, I'd like to see the whole lake returned to tidal flats as it used to be. Saltwater would take care of the problem.

I think it's another case of image over substance. Local government would rather pay lip service to environmental stewardship yet squander public funds by unnecessarily applying poison to the lake. Annual saltwater intrusion used to take care of the problem and would again as far as I know. The GA lake overseers seem to be more concerned that Capitol Lake be a "pretty reflecting pool for the Capitol buiding" than a functioning piece of the environment. This action seems to mirror public attitudes toward the environment in general.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

we used to waterski the heck out of Capitol Lake. Kept a boat on the south end and we would ski at night by the light of the Oly sign. It's like everything else too many people screw things up/

They still call that thing a lake?

I just thought that the article stated biologists having concern that saltwater flushing would damage the ecosystem. If that really was true, then why would they have allowed it to happen in the past? Besides, what would they have to lose? Most birds that I have seen on the lake are seabirds and so they wouldn't be affected by saltwater being mixed into the lake.

As for other living things like fish, I didn't think that the environment was really that conducive for them to live comfortably.

I would say that in just the 3 years that I have lived here, the lake and mouth of the Deschutes River has accumulated quite a bit of silt. I was down there walking around end of march when flows were low and man, the mouth of the Deschutes is just a network of built up bars of sediment. According to Lee Pilon, one of the hatchery techs at the Tumwater hatchery, Percival Cove has gone from 10-12' deep to about half that, thus part of the reason for closing down the net pen operation down there.

Yeah, I heard that they used to host hydroplane races during Lakefair and that the lake had to be dredged to allow for boating.

I just find the complexity of this issue to be fascinating.

i say drain it, and let it go back to estuary. i don't find anything worthwhile about that lake, why waste tax dollars poisoning milfoil

Heard some talk about about draining it and letting it become a fresh water estuary. I can see it now...

Mosquitoes invade capitol city! The recently remodeled dome becomes home of 40,000,ooo bats forcing the legislature evacuate. After a $3,ooo,ooo study it is decided by the Olympia City Council to introduce the South American Horny Bull Toad. The scientist however overlooked the fact that the toads were vegitarians and this they had no effect on the bugs, they did however have enough pond scum to thrive on and quadrupled in numbers and size over the the next two years. By this time the downtown area has become overrun with LARGE South American Horny Toads and you know what that means, Yeap another study. This study is done by the Evergreen State College Students............at a cost of $2.3 million to the taxpayers of the entire state it is decided to turn downtown Olympia into a Toad refuge. ...eventually the toads consume all of the plant life in the area....then the rains of 2056 come and wash out the Deshutes river basin including the Capital Toad refuge ...the toads are swept into the bay where once they come into contact with the salt they desolve into slime like slugs... the silt from the basin washes over the 5th Street bridge and creates a dam of the 4th St bridge.here a gentle waterfall forms with a beautiful lake behind it. A new strain of salmon created by scientist around the turn of the century find the lake and flurish that is until some jackass pollitician stumbles upon the pristine setting called Olympia.

No need to worry about mosquitos as it would not be a freshwater estuary........it would be a SALTWATER estuary; as it originally was a 100 years ago. Tidal influence used to occur clear up to the base of lower Tumwater Falls.