Mike Salsbury/The Olympian
Chambers Lake residents (from left) Skip Liljedahl, Barbara Krueckel, Todd Evans and Thom Sultzer are concerned about the clearing of vegetation that has occurred near Chambers Lake and Lacey officials have placed a stop-work order on the project because of the residents' inquiries.

City posts stop-work order at Chambers Lake wetland

Dredging work on channel could lower water level

N.S. NOKKENTVED, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published August 28, 2001

LACEY -- Some residents around Chambers Lake are concerned that work on the channel between the two halves of the lake could lower the already drought-depleted lake.

The channel, formerly choked with vegetation, has been cleared and survey stakes show an apparent intent to dredge the channel two feet deeper, neighborhood resident Thom M. Sultzer said. He wonders whether the work is legal.

Clearing and dredging the wetland channel would require local, state and federal permits.

"Pretty much anything you want to do in a wetland requires a slew of permits," said Eric Hielema of Lacey's Public Works Department. He was not aware of any such permits or applications.

"We're investigating it," he said.

The city posted a stop-work order at the site Monday afternoon. No serious violations had yet occurred, Hielema said.

The work was done under the direction of the Chambers Lake Drainage District, which has authority over the ditch that drains the lake.

It was not clear Monday, whether that authority also covers the channel between the two halves of the lake, Hielema said.

District commission Chairman E. Paul De Tray, an Olympia mobile home dealer, did not return telephone calls Monday afternoon. De Tray also owns property on the lake.

Normally, work in a wetland would require a local shoreline permit, a hydraulic project permit from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers.

Anything that could affect fish in the lake would require a permit from Fish and Wildlife, department spokesman Tim Waters said.

Sultzer is concerned that the commission didn't notify residents around the lake, he said.

But Hielema said no further work can happen there without a public process and the required permits.

"We've caught something before it became a problem," he said.

All that has happened there so far is that someone has cleared vegetation so they could do the survey and stakes were pounded in, Hielema said. Anyone who violates the city's stop-work order can be arrested, he said.

If the lake does not drain properly, some homes around the shoreline could flood in a wet winter, Hielema said. Chambers Lake drains into Chambers Ditch, which runs into Chambers Creek and then into the Deschutes River.

N.S. Nokkentved covers the outdoors for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5445.

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