© 2004 by Leo Poppoff

November 25, 2004

Basin Watch

by

Leo Poppoff

ENVIRONMENTAL THINGS TO BE THANKFUL FOR AT TAHOE

Here in the Tahoe Basin, we've developed complaining to a fine art. It's
the thing to do. I recall the comments of one of the speakers at a
symposium a couple of years ago. She told of visiting the Tahoe Basin
and having a dental emergency. While her mouth was propped open, the
dentist spent a half hour griping about TRPA. She opined that it was a
classic "Tahoe Experience."

Certainly, there are many things to be concerned about, from the
continuing decline of the lake to the horrendous summer and ski weekend
traffic, and much in between. Still, there's also much to be pleased
about -- to be thankful for. So, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, let's
remember some of the good things that have been happening.

Tahoe is now receiving money from the Southern Nevada Public Lands Act
(SNPLA). Federal lands around Las Vegas are being auctioned off, at ever
increasing prices. SNPLA dedicates the proceeds from those sales to
Nevada's parks and recreation programs. Nevada Senator John Ensign
observed that Tahoe wasn't getting all the money promised by the feds,
so he worked to get Tahoe Projects in California and Nevada included in
the SNPLA program. The first year's program netted some \$30 million for
Tahoe's erosion control projects and some \$7 million for research and
monitoring -- terrific!

Probably the most exciting thing (for me, anyway) has been the TMDL
(Total Daily Maximum Load) program, led by California's Lahontan Water
Quality Control Board and the Nevada Division of Environmental
Protection. Over the past couple of years, something like a hundred
scientists from several research and consulting organizations have been
working full or part time to understand Tahoe's lake and watershed
processes. An interesting feature of the TMDL approach to setting water
quality standards is that it actually conforms to the basic requirement
of the 1980 bi-state compact that established the current version of the
TRPA.

The compact required TRPA to determine the environmental carrying
capacities of the Tahoe Basin. Then, TRPA was to craft environmental
standards and a regional plan to ensure that those environmental
carrying capacities were not exceeded. Well, it's not cheap or easy to
determine environmental carrying capacities. And, it wasn't done.
Current environmental standards might or might not be appropriate, but
they weren't derived from the basin's environmental carrying capacities.

We have the EPA to thank for insisting that basin regulators determine
the environmental carrying capacity of Lake Tahoe. And, thankfully, the
EPA also helped finance this difficult task. The first phase of the
ambitious TMDL program has been to model Lake Tahoe's processes -- its
dynamics, how it handles pollutants, and how it all affects water
clarity. With a lake model, researchers can calculate how much of a
pollutant load the lake can take without deteriorating. To determine
where most of the pollutants originate, and how they get to the lake,
TMDL researchers are also developing models of watershed processes.

With this kind of info, resource managers should have a range of choices
about how to go about the task of returning Lake Tahoe to its
environmental carrying capacity. Or, putting it another way, results of
the TMDL program can help resource managers to wisely use funds being
provided by federal and state governments.

It's been obvious that most of the current environmental thresholds have
been exceeded, and that the current regional plan isn't doing the job of
stopping the decline of the lake. The good news is that TRPA, in concert
with the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board, Nevada's
Division of Environmental Protection, and the US Forest Service is
engaged in a thorough review of existing environmental thresholds, as
well as their respective agency plans.

An army of folks, agency staffers and volunteers, have started to
evaluate current thresholds and regulations, and to recommend ways to
improve them. This very large effort is called Pathway 2007 and much is
riding on it. You'll be hearing more about Pathway 2007. And the good
news is that you'll have a chance to help advise the basin agencies as
they amend their plans.

We can find out what the TMDL program has produced and how it meshes
with the Pathway 2007 effort on December 9th and 10th. On those two
days, at the Embassy Suites Hotel--Lake Tahoe Resort, in South Lake
Tahoe, there will be a public symposium about TMDL results. It's a great
chance to hear first hand what's been learned and what the next phase
will be. The symposium is free, but the sponsors need to know how many
of us will be attending so they can make arrangements to accommodate us.

If you're interested, contact Jack Landy at the Lahontan Regional Water
Quality Control Board. His phone number is (530) 542-5443, and his email
address is
[[Jlandy@rb6s.swrcb.ca.gov.]{.underline}](mailto:Jlandy@rb6s.swrcb.ca.gov.)
There's a special rate at the Embassy Suites Hotel for those who wish to
spend the night.

Questions or comments? Send them to
[[basinwatch@sbcglobal.net]{.underline}](mailto:basinwatch@sbcglobal.net)