Olympia's dream of artesian well still plugging along

'The community has really been asking for this'

Downtown Olympia is known - among other things - for its artesian well, which consists of a rough-hewn pipe coming out of the ground in a parking lot, pouring water from a source beneath the concrete. Anyone who has declined to drink the water because they are put off by its unrefined appearance will someday have a chance to taste the water that made Olympia famous, pending regulatory approval and results of a one-year test of the site.

A more aesthetically pleasing artesian well will be drilled on Port of Olympia property on Marine Drive, sharing a site with a parcel that is slated for future office development and about two blocks from the proposed site of the new Olympia City Hall. It will take the form of a "pocket park," said Sally Alhadeff with the Port's property busi­ness development office. The new site is a group effort of the Port, City of Olympia, Thurston County Health Department, Washington Departments of Health and Ecology and The Community Foundation, all led by Friends of the Artesians, a community group that has been working for 16 years on the project.

"Everything that has happened so far has been volunteered from the community," says Jim Ingersoll, an Olympia psychologist and founding member of Friends of the Artesians.

Now that a site has been found, the state Department of Ecology is in the process of issuing a temporary permit to drill the well, which will be monitored for one year by the state and county Departments of Health. If no problems are found, a permanent permit will be granted to open the well to the public and construct the park.

"We're hopeful that we are going to get authorization soon to drill a test well; as soon as we have that authorization, we will start fundraising,'' Ingersoll says.

Arcadia Drilling in Shelton has committed to the Friends to donate drilling services for the test well. Much of the park's construction effort will be through volunteer efforts and materials donations, Ingersoll says. The fundraising effort will be mostly to fund tile endowment to pay for the park's maintenance, which will include routine water quality testing overseen by the state Department of Health.

"This vision that was many, many years in the making is about to become a reality," said Alhadeff.

Ingersoll says the Friends' vision of the new park includes a place for people to sit, artwork to be donated by local artists, and an area for education about water quality issues and other environmental issues. That could take the form, he says, of a Web cam where schoolchildren can see the well in real time.

This is a well that is of the people, by the people and for the people," Ingersoll says. This is a dream that is held in the consciousness of the public, three mayors, two port directors, several retired regulatory leaders, major business leaders; all of them announced their support for it. So many people have worked so hard on this issue."

Ingersoll said the Friends organization took root in 1992 when The Olympian newspaper ran a photo of him collecting water at the well in the Diamond Parking lot. He stated in the article that he felt strongly that the public should have access to a well and that it could serve as a community gathering place. After the article was published, he got unsolicited calls from community members who feel strongly about the cause. The group started with eight members and has since grown "astronomically," fueled by "numbers of people who have been involved to create a public solution," he says.

"Ifs an idea that"s been driving around town for a very long time and the arts com­munity, among many groups, around town," says Ingersoll. "It inspired me. If s an indigenous idea that I heard from the community itself."

Although the group has done no formal fundraising, Ingersoll says it currently has about $17,000, which is held by nonprofit organization The Community Foundation.

In 2001, the Friends and City of Olympia signed an agreement to outline the process for the new well, said Victoria Decillo of the City's groundwater protection program. The agreement stipulates that the Friends are responsible for working with the Port to find a site, construct a facility and fund an endowment to maintain the site. The state Department of Ecology has authority over final approval of the site. Once a site is approved and built, the City will take over ownership of it and maintain it, using the endowment from the Friends.

The City will not pay for the site's construction or maintenance because it does not fit neatly into a budget category. It is not part of the municipal water supply because it's a downtown improvement, so ifs not in that budget. Nor is it in the parks budget or general fund. So it falls on the Friends to keep it funded.

The community has really been asking for this, so the Friends represent the community and the fundraising effort," said Decillo.

Once the new well is open to the public, the old well in the Diamond Parking lot on Fourth Avenue will be decommissioned, as stipulated in the 2001 agreement between the City and the Friends.