Lacey sells water rights to Tumwater

This story is about water.  So don’t just skim the surface of this article without reading the whole thing.

When the Olympia Brewing Company went out of business and was sold and resold, it carried with it one major asset – it’s water rights.  More than 30 wells, pumping large amounts of water were valuable.  The three cities of Lacey, Olympia and Tumwater jointly purchased those rights to meet their resident’s need for clean water.  The three municipalities agreed to share those water rights equally.

This month, the City of Lacey has entered into an agreement to sell its one-third share of those rights to the City of  Tumwater for $3 million dollars.  Lacey says it no longer needs those rights because its use of reclaimed  water to offset water withdrawal is sufficient to meet its needs into the future.  (Full story available at The JOLT News ).

L&E bottling in Tumwater is currently the largest user of water in the City of Tumwater. It produces Pepsi and Pepsi products.

Now Swire Coca Cola is looking at building a 95 acre bottling plant on Port of Olympia property in Tumwater south of the Olympia Airport.

Opponents of the move cite environmental concerns such as loss of virgin prairie land and traffic problems generated by 600 employees.  One of the opponents major concern was availability of water to meet the needs of a bottling plant.  With the purchase of Lacey’s water rights to the brewery water, that is no longer a major concern.

Mighty clever these city development directors.