Climate Risk and Vulnerability Assessment

Impacts on water supply and quality, and on public health, from heat and worsening water quality

"Temperatures in Olympia" eliminates major risks by definition

There should be some consideration of local impacts from higher temperatures elsewhere, like reduced yields of major crops, etc.

Build more parks and less roads

The urban heat island effect makes cities hotter. We need to plant more trees and have more green space.

less pavement, more permeable surfaces, increase tree canopy, retain existing trees as much as possible (i.e. no clear cutting)

Developing Community Wide Language and Goals

Develop a common language and common goals. Ruby Payne’s Bridges Out of Poverty and Getting Ahead in a Just Getting By World gives us the infrastructure to communicate well, innovate, prosper and thrive in the years ahead leaving one one out.

Don't spend money "restoring" Capitol Lake until we are past the climate change apocalypse, and that will release tons of methane, right?

educate and support rain gardens in commercial landscaping

Flooding due to impermeable surfaces

We need as much unpaved ground as possible to soak up water

With increased flooding I am most worried about maintaining water quality in our water systems

Efforts to support moving human structures out of flood plains would be a good place to begin addressing this. Also and incentive program to support private land owners to maintain green cover would help mitigate flooding.

Restore natural drainage/wetland in areas like Yauger park. Again, keep mature trees to intercept and slow runoff. Use permeable pavers.

Slow runoff and increase infiltration

Destruction

Living downtown, I'm not concerned about wildfires. I would expect that the risk is higher on the outskirts of the city limits. I wonder if we could end up having (small) wildfires at our parks.

To understand the relevancy of this question one would simply look into the history of wildfires in Olympia

Climate change doesn’t have the probability of increasing the chances of wildfires in Olympia, and there are no examples of wildfires in Olympia Because Olympia is not a place that gets wildfires. This is just one of those issues that’s not very relevant to Olympia in a direct way. Sure, you can talk about smoke, but that’s not coming from Olympia nor can we impact that through our policy changes in Olympia.

Avoid building sprawling neighborhoods in wooded areas.

Neighborhoods further way produce more carbon pollution (that contribute to wildfires) and produce fire district service issues.

Wildfires will place a burden on highways and city streets for emergencies. Use Taxes for Alt Energy, not to slow mobility.

Build in the city not the forest

We should build more housing in the already developed areas and stop sprawl

Reduce runoff from rainfall going to Budd Inlet...capture as much as possible to use during droughts with rain barrels, retention ponds

Drinking water supply

I'm not sure how much snow feeds the Deschutes River but we could see a drop in flow potentially. Natural landscaping design could help us keep the snow from melting quickly, letting the water soak in where it landed.

We can't live without water.

We need tightened operational practices for public and private water systems. We need every method possible to conserve and reuse water. We need to recognize that we can't grow the water supply yet population will likely grow. That means user must live with less. Due to seasonal changes, that tipping point where there is not enough water for population could happen in current dry seasons.

Consider different types of water for different usages.

For example, using drinking water for lawns and in bathroom toilets is essentially a bad idea.

Investigate methodologies for reusing waster water instead of sending it to Budd Inlet, and/or desalization processes

Consider placing parks in future flood areas and density in higher ground areas.

Stop building on the waterfront

We need to plan to avoid the costs of sea level rise.

I think of two different types of impacts from sea level rise. The first is destruction of property and infrastructure. The second is the financial impact on public budgets to try to protect from sea level rise and then to deal with it when it comes. We need to be looking at long term avoidance of costs which should include some narrowing of how much will be protected and avoiding locating assets in areas where sea level rise will bring flooding. We cannot do nothing, but we should also consider if it is possible to save it all.

Sea level rise will have no practical impacts to the city of Olympia

Even at the 100 year plus time scale, not much, is going to occur because of sea level rise. It’s just not gonna be a thing bros

Educate citizens & businesses about flood risks so that they can make good decisions. Also restrict development to avoid further flood risk.