TUMWATER, Wash. — Nearly 20 years after the Olympia Brewery produced its last drop, Tumwater city leaders are toasting the federal government.
The Environmental Protection Agency awarded the city a $500,000 grant to assess potential environmental cleanup concerns on the property.
”This will make a huge difference,” said Tumwater Mayor Debbie Sullivan.
After nearly 100 years, mostly producing beer sold across the country, the Olympia Brewery shut down June 20, 2003.
Multiple developers have purchased the property with plans to redevelop the area, but the property has remained vacant.
Fires and vandalism have destroyed some of the buildings, and most of the window across the 100-acre commercial property.
“For much of our community it’s heartbreaking to see what’s happened now,” said Tumwater City Administrator John Doan.
Doan and other city officials said the lack of an environmental assessment, and the potential cleanup costs, has made the property too risky for some investors.
“This is what prevents so much investment, so much energy from coming to this, because nobody knows what the risks are,” said Tumwater’s Economic Development Manager Austin Ramirez.
“No one is going to invest in this site until there’s certainty and predictability on this site,” said Ramirez.
He said the initial assessment could identify areas that need to be cleaned up, something that could be paid for by future federal grants.
“It really is huge,” said Ramirez, who wrote the grant application, “It really is the first step towards solving all the other issues.”
Seven local jurisdictions in Washington state received the grants from the Environmental Protection Agency under the federal infrastructure package.
In addition to Tumwater, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, the Grays Harbor Council of Governments, Kelso, the ports of Bremerton and Whitman County, and the Spokane Low Income Housing Consortium also received grant funding for environmental site assessments.