Anyone more conversant with the history of "Little Hollywood" and the reason the dam was put in originally? It shares some history with the current controversy over liveaboards in Budd Inlet. I'd like some perspectives of the mossbacks around here.

I'll say this - the lake management has often been faced with the suggestion that they should allow saltwater to flow into the lake to help control the milfoil. They could be doing this deliberately, or they could be doing it for reasons related to the spillway failure last month... I could not say for sure at this hour, since it is too late to ask.

The reason for the lower water is simply because its the rainy season and they want to keep some capacity behind the dam for the eventual high flow/high tide days.

In terms of the history of Capital Lake, some kind of reflecting pond had been envisioned at the base of the Capital since the late 1800s. That the impoundment was always intended to be a dam at 5th Ave is a misconception. Originally, the plan was to run a north to south dike from the northwest corner of the bluff to about where that big hill is today. That would have cost a lot of money though.

The creation of the modern day Capital Lake had more to do with the changing nature of Deschutes River waterway from commercial to recreation use. With the brewery just below the falls in Tumwater, it had been necessary to keep the waterway open. There was also significant log storage taking place underneath the Capital where Heritage Park is today. The commercial use of the waterway led to the creation over time of Little Hollywood. Squatters would set up shanties in the tideland and along the shore, similar to communities along the waterfront in Seattle and Tacoma.

During the 1930s and 40s, when the railroad was built between the modern brewery and the Port of Olympia, the use of the Deschutes as a commercial waterway ceased. The city of Olympia, now with the much cheaper option of creating a reflecting pool by simply building a dam at 5th Avenue took steps to clean up Little Hollywood (a huge euphemism).

The idea to periodically allow the tide to wash back into Capital Lake to control milfoil was standard operating procedure up until a few years ago. The lake would be drained almost totally of freshwater on a low tide, and allowed to fill on a high tide, killing all of the freshwater plants that had established themselves, including milfoil. This practice was stopped because it simply killed off any life in Capital Lake.