Tahoe’s clarity — a billion dollar scientific experiment
By Kathryn Reed
Stabilized is the word being used to describe what is going on with the clarity of Lake Tahoe. It took $1.5 billion to get to that point.
That is the amount of money spent, according to the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, on environmental improvement projects between the inception of the program in 1997 and 2010. In 1997, the depth the Secchi dish, which looks like a white dinner plate, could be seen was 64.1 feet. In 2010 the depth was 64.4 feet.
On Feb. 29 the 2011 clarity data was released, showing a clarity depth of 68.9 feet – or an improvement of 4.5 feet in one year. 2010, though, was the second worst reading since records began to be kept in the late 1960s, having decreased by 3.7 feet from 2009.
It has taken $1.5 billion to stabilize Lake Tahoe's clarity. Photo/LTN file
The back-and-forth nature of the readings amounts to little change in the last decade. In 2000, the disk could be seen at a depth of 67.3 inches.
“We feel it’s positive news because we’re at the point of stabilizing,” Kristi Boosman, TRPA spokeswoman, told Lake Tahoe News. “It would have been a whole lot worse had we not made the investment we did.”
But there is no proof that statement is true.
That money – mostly from the feds through the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act – is about to run out. That means another funding source needs to be found. Public-private partnerships are touted as the answer, but what exactly that looks like and who will be in either category remains to be seen.
- Lake Tahoe clarity readings: 2011: 68.9 feet (21 meters) 2010: 64.4 feet (19.6 meters) 2009: 68.1 feet (20.8 meters) 2008: 69.6 feet (21.2 meters) 2007: 70.1 feet (21.4 meters) 2006: 67.7 feet (20.6 meters) 2005: 72.4 feet (22.1 meters) 2004: 73.6 feet (22.4 meters) 2003: 71 feet (21.6 meters) 2002: 78 feet (23.8 meters) 2001: 73.6 meters (22.4 meters) 2000: 67.3 feet (20.5 meters) Source: TRPA
“We always have to ask ourselves if we are getting results from the dollars because they are public dollars,” Harold Singer, executive director of Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board said. His agency is tasked with managing water issues on the California side of the basin, though Lahontan’s jurisdiction is much greater than Tahoe.
“You can’t tie year-to-year clarity readings to the landscape. You have to look at long-term trends,” Singer told Lake Tahoe News. Otherwise it’s just looking at what was going on that one year instead of at the big picture, he said.
The surprise with the year-over-year improvement was 2011 was a heavy snow year, which in turn created a ton of runoff. This usually means more sediment reaches the lake to cloud the water, with an expected outcome of diminished clarity.
Geoffrey Schladow, director of the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center, in a statement said, “The factors that contribute to lake clarity are complex, and are not necessarily linked to factors occurring in the current year. Understanding what controls the long-term trends is at the heart of what we are attempting to do.”
TERC along with TRPA released the report.
But one of the problems is no one is sure what is working and what isn’t. For years nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorous were seen as the big bugaboos. Now it’s fine sediment.
While TRPA has come up with a top 10 list of what individuals can do to help with lake clarity, there is no overall top 10 list of projects that could or should be implemented.
No one has identified the top areas contributing to the degradation of lake clarity. The mantra is “urban upland” – or the old developed areas in the basin.
This means that instead of taking a concerted approach to fixing the biggest polluters, the powers that be have cast a broad net to fix the problem. So, the next billion dollars that is spent on lake clarity may not be spent in the most efficient manner because after all of these years no one has prioritized what needs to be fixed to get the best return on investment.
Goals from 2008-18 are outlined on Page 14 of this document. But they are neither specific nor detailed.
TRPA also supplied this information with accomplishments through 2006. It says how the money was spent, not whether it did any good in terms of lake clarity.
Even though the goal of TRPA and the states is to have Lake Tahoe’s clarity be 97 feet by 2076, no detailed plan to reach that goal has been put in place by now. TRPA was created more than 40 years ago with the main emphasis to protect the waters of Lake Tahoe.
“We FEEL it’s positive news. . .”
And there you have it in a nutshell. For the liberal “scientists” who are spending tax payer dollars on their unproven theories.
It’s only money, after all. Being able to see a plate under water is SO much more important!
The clarity of Lake Tahoe improved in 2011 because of below average rainfall in the Lake Tahoe basin during 2011. Tahoe Pipe Club determined this by calculating the annual rainfall depths from the National Weather Service station in Tahoe City. In 2011 there was 14 inches of rain compared to the average annual rain depth of 20 inches. The rainfall depth was compared to the Tahoe Environmental Research Centers annual change in lake clarity and the following graph shows this relationship. The loss of clarity in Lake Tahoe is primarily due to rainfall washing pollutants from the urban watersheds into Lake Tahoe. Clarity generally decreases in years with more rain, and tends to improve in years with less rain. However, the clarity of Lake Tahoe is not improving as shown in the following graph.
Finally, the clarity is not responding to restoration efforts because the restoration efforts have failed to mitigate the rainfall driven urban water quality impacts to Lake Tahoe. The data for this review is on the science page at tahoepipeclub.com
The only credible perspective comes from the Pipe Club. The “academic” and environmental cottage industry failed to deliver with $1,500,000,000 “invested”.
Lahontan, The League, Forest Service and a few other organizations directed the projects with no measurement. There is no accountability. The question as to who is responsible and why the results are so pitiful in light of the huge resources expended should be answered before another dime of tax payer money is wasted. Where did the money go?
There should be community outrage with this irresponsible behavior.
2011 was a heavy snow year and runoff year. There was little rain with most runoff coming from the forests. The urban watersheds respond to rain with the largest pollutant transport occurring during this rain condition. So it makes sense clarity improved as we had little rain a huge Non urban runoff. The TMDL indicates most pollutants causing clarity loss are from the urban at 72% of the problem, so this being the case and having no rain or massive rain on snow events did not allow that mass flush of pollutants to occur from the urban, hence a huge runoff year and clarity increasing. The large runoff years when clarity declined significantly from huge runoff appear to be from large infrequent long duration rain on snow events. This simply was not the case in 2011. Clarity is driven by rain events. I think Tahoe pipe club is on to something here….
Oh my, such negativity. Having watched the agency efforts for 25 years, and helping whenever we could, makes me realize how important their work has been. While they’ve made the efforts, the residents (yes even in the Keys and other development bordering the lake) have continued to shower the channels with fertilizers and grass clippings. Yes, these effects eventually reach the lake. Support the agency efforts so that one day you aren’t living near a bright green lake.
Mike,some of the money went to welfare for TRPA and their employees and to the many pseudoscientists who love government handouts for prearranged results.
Geoffrey (we are attempting) Schaldow should be ashamed of himself, but then the money is good and he can laugh all the way to the bank.
Just another example of spoon fed propaganda designed to make us happy w the fact that their spending billions on their experiments. Wonder how much of that money was mis appropiated? Imagine what tahoe could be if that money were actually used in the community. Awesome job tahoepipeclub for exposing the REAL reason for our ”stabilized clarity”!
Imagine what Lake Tahoe would look like if un-regulated free market capitalists would have been allowed to do whatever they wanted to.
$1.5 billion not much to show, where is the accountability?
The TRPA HAS NO Accountability.
Blubird a bridge over Emerald Bay. :)
Unfortunately, we are seeing a ‘public relations shuffle’, as most of the $ 1.5 billion was spent, as Las Vegas (taxpayer) properties were sold to developers that are not there any more, this “accounts for the Federal monies”, which were only to be a fraction, considering both “states” and the private side also had a “share”.
Compound that with the fact that most of the “dialogue” was directed either by staff, or the very scientific entities that were to receive funding, to the selected Board, who pretty much believed everything that was put in front of them, and you have the makings of the “Wizard of Oz”
Who’s driving ? There’s lots of complicity, but no real responsibility.
The same is about to happen, as the League changes, and TRPA downsizes, in giving up the very thing (permitting), that everyone thought they could count on. . . serial dysfunctionality, as the cities and counties don’t have any better way of doing it than TRPA does, given the results.
This is not a future.
For TRPA to “encourage” sustainable communities, based on the toothless SB 375 (Steinberg – ‘Sustainable Community Strategy’) is merely a ploy to stay “legal”, while still hoping for CA dollars that may not be there.
Same for Federal.
As to Mr. Bradford’s lament, there are many examples out there of communities that work, but here, everyone seems to want to rely on the very people who presided over its’ demise to provide answers, when they haven’t even seen their way clear to ask the right questions yet.
Sustainability is about human behavior, and its’ impact – to the degree we don’t change the behavior, we won’t change the impact. But people in Tahoe still cling to the possibility that things will be solved by legislating – it won’t. . .
The City Council had an economist who thought Tahoe would not rebound for six years, and Mayor Claire spoke of the RPU’s emerging trend of “disconnects” – but perhaps that’s a good sign (?): if they learn to ask the right questions, give up so much posturing, then listen . . .
6 years is unacceptable. . .
Disconnects have prevailed here too long as it is – the question is how to unify a populace long under the thumb of “divide & rule” into catching up – quickly (?)
Down the road in a couple of years when the City files for BK we will kick ourselves for spending so much on this BS. One worthless study after another.
Have to love the PIPE CLUB
Did you see the looks on their faces when their investment banker showed them how underfunded the insurance and pension funds were two meetings ago?
PS
Kudos to Tom and Hal for wanting to address the issue.
Blubird,
There has not been an unregulated free market in the USA in over a hundred years. What type of dribble you spew!
Get yourself educated.
Free market conservatives believe in a balance that respects freedoms and our earth.
What Tahoe has is a repressive government that does neither.
It doesn’t respect the freedoms and rights of the citizens nor has it done justice to the environment. No where is it more evident than in South shore.
It’s crumbling, intellectually, economically and environmentally.
The damage done by the socialist education system, the crony capitalism and excessive regulation to the lives of the people in this community is sinful.
Hey Joe, If I get myself educated like you can I repeat the same whining hate for So. Lake Tahoe and those uppity libruls every day ad nauseam?
Blebird,
It would be better than sounding like an indoctrinated ignorant Marxist.
Your point of ‘un-regulated free market capitalists’ is baseless. Why don’t you try and justify it?
Because YOU CAN’T, that is why!
– it is ignorant dribble and people hopefully will see you that way.
When will the tipping point come? I think there’s some great ideas out there. Where is the drive to come through and complete it?
Stop Tahoe Pipes from Turning Tahoe Black? I think that sounds like a clear way to improve Lake Tahoe’s transparency over the long term.
@tahoegal.
I’m so glad to see that you care so much about conservation at Lake Tahoe. But you should know that bright green algae isn’t the main problem affecting clarity, it’s fine sediment particles washed into the lake by rainfall on the highways, connected to the lake through storm drains and pipes. The agencies are failing us all by mismanaging their funds, they spent the money but their ideas aren’t working effectively. As someone who cares about tahoe and the future here, you should join us in criticizing the failed regulators.