Tahoe Resource Conservation District has received two grants that will be used to implement a basinwide stormwater monitoring program. The first is for $750,000 and the second is $760,000; for a time period of four years.

The regional stormwater monitoring program will not only serve to fill scientific gaps, and provide a means by which jurisdictions can assess the cumulative effect of environmental improvement programs in specific watersheds, but it will help to track basinwide progress toward achieving lake clarity goals, TRCD said in a press release.

One grant funded through the U.S. Forest Service and will be used to solidify a partnership between the Tahoe RCD, Nevada Tahoe Conservation District, South Lake Tahoe, Placer, El Dorado, Washoe, and Douglas counties, and the California and Nevada departments of transportation. This project will monitor several watersheds and stormwater treatment facilities around the Lake Tahoe Basin in order to assess the effectiveness of pollutant load reduction efforts.

The second grant is funded through the state Water Quality Control Board, and will be used to unite university scientists, environmental agencies, and private contractors who have developed various methods for monitoring stormwater in the Tahoe basin over the last decade with the goal of agreeing on a collaborative, scientifically sound, cost-effective regional stormwater monitoring approach. The long-term goal will be to establish a lake wide monitoring effort that contributes to our understanding of stormwater treatment benefits.

“Developing the administrative and scientific structure to implement a Regional Stormwater Monitoring Program is a new role for the Tahoe RCD, but has been a long term planning effort for many Basin partners,” Andrea Parra, monitoring coordinator for the Tahoe RCD, said in a statement.

A second major goal for the Tahoe RCD is to establish a comprehensive web-based database for housing all Lake Tahoe stormwater data in one location.