Edgewood works to keep sediment from Tahoe
Edgewood Creek is getting an overhaul to improve water quality. Photos/Kathryn Reed
By Kathryn Reed
Playing in the rough has taken on a whole new meaning at Edgewood Tahoe.
The Stateline golf course looks like a construction zone these days. And that’s because it is one.
By December 2016 the 154-room Edgewood Lodge should be open. There will also be 40 cabin units along the eighth and ninth fairways that will be fractional ownership. The lodge will include a 120-seat restaurant, adventure center, spa, fitness center and lakefront pool.
Right now much of the golf course appears to be more dirt than grass. Work on the lodge will resume in the spring. Work on water quality projects will continue through the winter.
“The best time to perform creek enhancements is during periods of low flow,” Lew Feldman, attorney representing Edgewood Tahoe, told Lake Tahoe News. “It includes increased storage capacity of ponds that act as a catchment basin and expansion of wetlands. It will occur over this winter period, which from an environmental perspective is the safest time to undertake these enhancements.”
That is the work that can be seen from Highway 50. Mounds of dirt have been piling up.
It is Edgewood Creek that is getting so much attention. It is at the bottom of the 4,000-acre Kingsbury Watershed.
Holes 7, 8, and 9 will be tweaked to accommodate Edgewood Lodge. The clubhouse is in the background.
That dirt being taken out of the ponds is called “dredge spoils”. The plan is to keep as much of it as possible on the property to be used for the hotel and golf course hole realignments.
When the project is done it’s estimated that more than 400,000 pounds of sediment will be captured each year, with another 50,000 pounds of fine sediment. This means all those particles will not be reaching Lake Tahoe.
Future dredging will be necessary because sediment will always flow downhill to Edgewood.
Feldman called this the largest private water quality improvement project in the basin’s history.
While he wouldn’t give the exact dollar amount, he said it is costing several million dollars. The project is expected to be finished by spring before the runoff starts.
On the other side of the golf course holes 7, 8 and 9 are being worked on. Nine should be done next year. It will have a lakefront finish. Seven and eight will be finished the following year.
Now can I build my small deck and garage in Meyers? Nope? Didn’t think so. ‘The largest private water quality improvement project…’ Yeah right. As they build a huge lodge and cabins. How is that improving anything? How about stopping fertilizing the grass so it doesn’t run into the lake? What a joke.
Tahoebluewire, Yep, you’re right. Edgewood can start tearing up soil on land that slopes towards the lake and is right on the lakeshore. Plus it’s right before winter when the rain and snow starts to fall. Not a problem for lake clarity there,eh? But for just the regular working guy on So. Shore? Just try getting a fence permit( yes, you do need a permit to put up a fence),and there is an alloted time period to build such projects as decks, storage sheds, garages and such.
So as I, along with others have said, it’s all about selective enforcement, lots of money to the right agencies and it dose’nt hurt to know a few people in power who can pull some strings!
Good luck Edgewood! You really are showing what developement in Tahoe is all about. Money, greed, pollution, paid off so called “regulatory agencies”, a law firm with “connections” and a few politicians in your back pocket as well.
OLS
With enough money, you can do any damn thing you want in Tahoe. You just need to hire the right people and thoroughly grease the right palms.
If doing this kind of work in winter is actually the best idea, as Mr. Feldman states, then we ALL should have the right to do so, and TRPA should rewrite their rules. Again.
We really need a change
If this is the best time, why does the TRPA forbid everyone else from moving dirt between October and May?
Sure glad I had marafi barrier on my lot to rebuild in the Angora area… Locals should get kamaina rates at Edgewood like Hawaii. Keeps the “ruling class” in perspective.
are they going to upgrade their Krapy motel behind the Hole in the Ground, that is their employee housing?
they could have bought an apartment bldg. instead of a rundown, worn out old motel.
the place is full of families lots of children, the school bus stop is at their driveway.
To make a claim that 50,000 pounds of fine sediment will be captured from this project is crazy. Is this some bogus model used to justify development..? How does that total capture number compare to all of Douglas county? Anyone..
The article mentioned this project would reduce sediment flowing into the lake by 450,000 lbs annually. Over 10 years almost 5 million pounds. I think that’s a good thing. Comparing the environmental benefits of this project probably allows them to get a project variance.
I think Edgewood greased the right hands with the right amount of money. I started a few projects late in the dirt moving season and received a week long extension to finish the earthwork. Nearly everyday I was harassed by city inspectors saying that I could be fined if the job was not winterized. If my smaller job looked faintly like the picture above after my extension ran out I would be lead away in hand cuffs and fined.
Lets let everybody build through the winter, sure would help the construction business. I do not see one BMP fence that is on every other project in town. Much less in a stream zone!! TRPA where are you?
Guys, don’t you know by now that Lew Feldman is the real Executive Director of the TRPA, and Joanne is nothing more than his puppet? Martis Valley, Meyers Plan, the Ta-Hole, and Edgewood… They will all do whatever they want, and Joanne, the Chamber, and LTVA will champion them as “groundbreaking environmental projects,” not that anyone else in the Basin is allowed to do anything comparable.
Buck, Well yeah, it looks like Edgewood is going to do whatever they want despite the rules set down by the TRPA, the two adjoining states and numerous environmental groups which are doing nothing to stop this!
So they’ll continue to plow the earth in an environmentaly sensitve area and nothing will be done to stop it, as they, (edgewood) get ready for the building to begin.
Wait till they start the Meyers plan and the projects on north shore get started!!!
Have a Happy Halloween, I’ll b dressed as a consultanT with strong tyes to tha TRPA, (nothing scarier than that!) OLS
I love this project!!!!!!!!!!!!
How do you develop to such an extent and somehow sell it as a water quality project? That photo looks like crud.. Residential home construction can’t get away with that. We have a massive double standard going on here… Money talks is the bottom line…
This doesn’t pass the straight face test. New development is not an environmental benefit period.
Good grief…
There was older development that was grandfathered in and was developed before new standards were developed. That’s why there are still dirt parking lots all over town. New development is built to a new higher standard and the old development is also brought up to the new higher standard. That’s the water quality benefit.
If you don’t believe this, then you must believe there is no water quality detriment to the old building methods.
Get used to it, this is the only water quality projects are going to get funded because SNPLMA is functionally dead.
“The best time to perform creek enhancements is during periods of low flow,”
“If doing this kind of work in winter is actually the best idea, as Mr. Feldman states, then we ALL should have the right to do so, and TRPA should rewrite their rules. Again.”
Umm, are you doing ‘creek enhancements’? Are all of you doing creek enhancements? This is has nothing to do with covering up dirt piles and expanding your decks. Reading comprehension.
I asked a TRPA monitoring person about Edgewood and fertilizer runoff. They said they test the water in the lake and in the ponds, and that Edgewood does a very good job. Good for them. I still think golf courses in sensitive areas are terrible, but people seem to really like it. If we are going to have a golf course in that setting, have one, make the most of it financially, manage it well, and everything will be fine.
How can they stop the wind from blowing sediment into the lake for such a large project? They can’t.
TRPA has also told us that wind blow sediment is one of our biggest problem, so why are they not watering all that dirt?
In defense of Edgewood, this is actually a good project in the sense that it will (eventually) reduce sediment to the Lake. You’re looking at open heart surgery right now, and of course it looks ugly. There will be some short term construction impacts here, but overall it’s a net gain for water quality.
He touted Hodges Ski Run project, and The Hole and they both went BK. His silve tongue is bought and sold by the heavy hitters.
Amen Lou. That be fact.
Kathryn Reed,
Thanks for all the info.
Hey, my homework searching does pay off !
Moral Hazard has it right. All the new projects and there will be new ones will put in place updated environmental improvements that will reduce sediment flow to the lake. That’s also why new projects are beneficial and just leaving the old infrastructure is actually more harmful to the lake. So yes new development can be very good for the environment.
Lew, Where’s the science to back up these straight face tales?
Slap and Moral, You have each other right, that’s about it.
Lou, the science is written in code on the back of all those $100.00 dollar bills and the only ones who can decipher them is the agency’s but they have to have the bills in their possession before they can begin to decipher them for us normal folks.
Ummm… “When the project is done it’s estimated that more than 400,000 pounds of sediment will be captured each year, with another 50,000 pounds of fine sediment. This means all those particles will not be reaching Lake Tahoe.”
And people have a problem with that statement… from the article above… Really?
Rock, Ya I have a problem with any statement from a paid hired gun. You don’t? Nice
Edgewood can do this right on the shore with TRPA’s blessing – yet they cut back an already severely restricted residential development by 66% representing insignificant threat to Lake Tahoe ?
What does this tell you ?
‘How can they stop the wind from blowing sediment into the lake for such a large project? They can’t.
Yes they can.
‘TRPA has also told us that wind blow sediment is one of our biggest problem, so why are they not watering all that dirt?’
You have evidence of this? Haven’t seen any fences, or that green stuff?.
the yokels are restless.
Lou Pierini is correct about the “hired gun.” Feldman has a history of embellishing the truth (lying). Follow the money!!!
It’s apparent that edgewood’s consrtuction of a hotel on the lakefront ( oh excuse me, now it’s called a “lodge with cabins”. How quaint!). The”talks”of a loop road to better serve the casinos and edgewood that nobody wants, which will hurt local business and destroying homes and leaving hundreds of hard working folks looking for a new place to live. The Meyers plan ( which most residents of the area don’t want!) are most likely, already approved and paid for!!!
I’m slow to anger and mostly a mellow person, but damm it, this stuff is really beginning to piss me off!
The pollution of Tahoe Keys Marina with human waste, along with the theft of state owned land! Developement being done on restricted tmes in enviormentaly sensitve land(edgewood). Plans for clearing huge envionmentaly sensitive ridgelines of land for homes to be built on No. Shore. Damm it! This stuff angers me!!!! OLS
OLS, I am also not a fan of the loop road as it has been proposed. If it went one way going east it would work for me. However many of these people that are renting now would probably get enough in relocation funds would get enough to make them homeowners. there are a number of places under 200k that they would be able to buy with payments of about 900 a month.
OLS, you’re right. It bites. And the only way the developers get away with it is by influencing government. We’ve given government entirely too much power, and only big developers/corporations have enough money to play in that league.
Most of you want to lay all the blame on the developers/corporations, but in trusting government with all that power, we’ve dug our own graves.
Government is not our friend. It cannot be trusted.
Are you realizing that now?
Not quite sure why everyone uses the misnomer “loop road.” It is not a loop road, it is a re-routing of Highway 50. If it was truly a loop road, there would be a loop around the area with the road returning on the California side.
How about closing the road entirely in the casino core and making it a beautiful walking area?
The businesses on the California side better speak up before it is too late to protect their interests.
Reloman, Average relocation benefits for long term renters in past redevelopment areas, was less than $10,000.00. No lenders, I know of
are lending 95% of purchase price.
Wow! Edgewood is improving the water quality of the lake and everyone gets upset? Way to go folks. Way to miss the bottom line.
Improving on their abuses of the past. You really think the creek flow and ponds they are improving are natural?
Dogula and Reloman, Now theres an opposite pair, right kids?
Okay, Dogula We are polar opposites polittcaly, but I will come to your defense when your being insulted even when I don’t agree with your position on things
(which is often the case!). Me being a “leftist” and all that.
Reloman, you come across as a good chap! I’m opposed to the loop road for several reasons.
#1 We already got one. Sure it’s just bunch of sections of residendtial streets, but hey, it works!
#2 The dislocation of hundreds of people thru emminent domain. Leaving folks homeless and some cabins that have been in the family for generations being demolished. Not good at all!
#3 Hurtful to local business as it will be if upon completion will circumvent driving accses away from their property’s entrance.
#4 Very expensive. For that kind of money we could re pave every street in the city, and lord knows we need it! the streets are fallin’apart!
Jut a few thoughts from yours truly, OLS
Lou, FHA is still doing loans at a little over 3% down and will allow sellers to still pay closing cose up to 3%.
OLS i agree with most of what you say on the loop road, but a couple of things.
1. many of the dislocated if not most are renters abd with relocation funds they may get the only chance for them to be homeowners, which i think would be great for them.
2. if it is made a one way street going east it may well help the businesses esp if the speeds are slowed down.
3. The transportation district has no power of emminent domain , caltrans has vetoed that idea as far as them doing it and it would take 4 council votes for the city to do it, so i believe that the only way for it to be done is for the properties to be sold at what the sellers want.
4. yes very expensive, they dont even have the money for it right now anyway and i would rather see them finish the repaving of 50 first.
Who cares what happened years ago. The point is it’s getting fixed and the lake benefits all the rest of this is irrelevant.
Reloman, Of the hundreds of people that received relocation $ with an average of about $4500.00 most spent the money on other things, not for a down payment on a house. If you think this money is enough to buy a house you need to do some research. I was there in 1989 right next to Orange Julius walking the walk.
Slap, It’s getting fix so they can build a hotel and 40 houses on lakefront marsh land. Fixing it so they can develop lakefront marsh land. Nice
‘Most of you want to lay all the blame on the developers/corporations, but in trusting government with all that power, we’ve dug our own graves.
Government is not our friend. It cannot be trusted.’
Tahoe Keys.
Abandoned cyanide ponds.
Clear cut logging.
We can’t let corporations do whatever they want. Or we end up with that. Government gets involved, corporations work with the government, be it following rules, guidelines, planning, etc.
Edgewood wants to expand. TRPA is the lead for improving the environment. Edgewood gets to build, and does some work to correct the intense stream control. Economic +, environmental +.
Edgewood, or any other company, won’t do the environmental + on their own. Or they don’t have a deep understanding of what that entails. Their goals are on different time scales than the environment.
TRPA is not perfect but it is nowhere near as unreasonable as you yokels make it out to be.
Go move to Houston, see what a lack of planning does.
‘You really think the creek flow and ponds they are improving are natural?
You don’t understand the mission and goals. You want the TRPA to be unreasonable. So you can criticize them for being unreasonable?
Candidate Curtzwiler:
You wrote the following:
“Lou, the science is written in code on the back of all those $100.00 dollar bills and the only ones who can decipher them is the agency’s but they have to have the bills in their possession before they can begin to decipher them for us normal folks.”
Interesting take when you stood up before the SLT City Council and told them that they should award an RFP for food vending to a friend of yours based solely on the fact that your friend was a long-time resident, even though the payment amount identified in the contract wouldn’t have brought the greatest amount of money to the City. It’s illegal for an elected official to conduct business in the way you advocated and what you recommended is called cronyism, backroom dealing, or perhaps it’s just “the science written in code”.
But then that also brings to mind when you told the City Council that it was unfair for an out of town construction firm to be selected to do the renovation on the TJ Maxx Store by those TJ Maxx representatives since you’d spent what you believed was a lot of your time talking to those reps. Submitting the lowest bid was likely their criteria for awarding that contract.
Spouse – 4-mer-usmc
Mr. Pierini:
The people who received “an average of about $4,500” of relocation money in 1989 had the choice of how they wanted to spend the money they got, and if they decided to spend that money “on other things” and not keep it and add other monies to it toward a down payment on a home that was their prerogative.
1989 and you’re still so angry. 25-years is a long time to be mad.
Spouse – 4-mer-usmc
Lou, I have done a little reseach, just because in the past people didnt buy 25 years ago that was their choice, doesnt mean some smart real estate agent wouldnt think to approach these people to show them how they can own. The numbers i have heard from reliable sources is much higher than the $4500 given 25 yrs ago, it will be closer to 10k. If they dont buy then what they do with the money is their choice as adults,
Lou it would not get fixed any other way . So what if they build some needed upscale lodging, create some new jobs and pay some taxes for local government while reducing 450,000 pounds of sediment a year.
It’s so interesting how so many people comment with great regularity about how Nevada (aka-THEM) shouldn’t ever tell SLT, California (aka-US) what to do, like with the Loop Road for example. But these very same people have no compunction about telling Nevada (THEM) what they should do.
Spouse – 4-mer-usmc