TRPA not banning seaplanes from Lake Tahoe
Publisher’s note as of June 4 at 2:30pm: The stakeholders and Tahoe Regional Planning Agency officials met today. Seaplanes will not be banned from Lake Tahoe.
By EAA
Long a premier destination for seaplanes in the Western United States, local governing bodies threaten to severely restrict seaplane access to Lake Tahoe, the largest alpine lake in the Western Hemisphere. A federally chartered regional planning agency has proposed a noise ordinance that would prohibit any seaplane operations within one mile of the shoreline in a bid to protect the serenity of the lake.
Bisected by the California-Nevada border, Lake Tahoe, often called “The Jewel of the Sierra,” is 6200 feet above sea level, 24 miles long, 12 miles wide and the second deepest lake in North America. Seaplanes have been operating there for at least 75 years since Lake Tahoe Airways started operating Sikorsky S-38 Amphibians on the lake in 1934. Since then, other longtime commercial seaplane airlines and operations have flourished on Lake Tahoe.
Governing the lake is the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) which is a federally chartered bi-state agency created to preserve and enhance the beauty of the Lake Tahoe Basin. Currently, the agency is updating its regional plan for the lake and the proposed noise ordinance would severely restrict private and commercial seaplane operations on the lake.