CLIPA White Paper

The CLAMP study’s conclusion that the reversion of Capitol Lake to a tidal mud flat environment would be an environmental benefit compared to the planned Capitol Lake management program is unrealistic. The widely circulated images of emergent vegetation are misleading.

 

The location at the southernmost end of Puget Sound would result in continued accumulated deposits in lower Budd Inlet with the removal of the dam. The sediment would not be carried away by currents in the manner that occurs at Nisqually.

 

In this scenario, the CLAMP study did not account for 30% of the sediment dispersal. It stated that it just “dissipated.” However, upon questioning this assumption, we were told by GA that this sediment does not “dissipate,” rather it would stay within Budd Inlet, filling in the western side of the inlet. The science supports this, indicating that sediment tends to “clump” in salt water much more than fresh water. With the two daily incoming tides, removal of the dam could lead to accelerated accumulation of sediment in the lower Budd Inlet than with the dam.

 

The CLAMP study acknowledges that the transition from the initial process of estuary formation to the time when it would produce any potentially measureable environmental benefits would be 50-plus years. Even then, those benefits would be disrupted every three years, according to the study, by the need to dredge the lower Budd Inlet portion of the proposed Deschutes Watershed tidal mud flats.