Volunteers helping Tahoe water quality
By Kathryn Reed
A lot of gunk flows into Lake Tahoe, causing the clarity to decline and algae to grow. Most of it comes in the winter and spring via storm runoff. But the lasting effect is making the water near the beaches less inviting, especially in the summer.
None of this is news.
What is new is the concerted effort that is under way to study all of that water that is flowing to the lake. Instead of just having the states mandate that the jurisdictions reduce the amount of fine sediment reaching the lake, there is actual monitoring going on to know what is mixed in with the water and which corrective measures are or are not working.
The jurisdictions around the lake are mandated to reduce their pollutant loads. That is what all the “erosion control” projects are about. The Lahontan Regional Quality Control Board’s total maximum daily load mandate is a 65-year program with the goal of returning the lake clarity to 100 feet – the depth a white dinner plate-like disc could be seen in the 1960s.
Tahoe Resource Conservation District is the lead agency of the Regional Stormwater Management Program. TRCD is seen as a neutral third party between those dictating what must be done and those who must carry out the orders. All sides are part of the program.
“We are providing consistent data collection, management, analysis and reporting methods,” Sarah Bauwens of TRCD told a group of nearly 50 people on Dec. 10 at Lake Tahoe Community College.
A dozen urban catchments are being monitored. Data is being collected from 10 to 12 precipitation events a year, including rain, snow, rain on snow and thunderstorms.
Turbidity, or the cloudiness of the water, is being measured. Data is showing sediment doesn’t just come down with the first rush of water.
“We’ve only done one full year of monitoring. Over time we want to see if there is a downward trend in pollutant load,” Bauwens said.
She said it would take five years’ of data to detect a trend.
Water flows from the pipe below the old Alta Mira building in South Lake Tahoe. Photo/LTN file
In addition to fine sediment, nitrogen and phosphorous are other pollutants that are cause for concern.
The volume of water is measured.
Water samples are sent to labs.
Some of the monitoring occurs at the end of the pipes that carry runoff to the lake, some involves seeing if erosion control measures (best management practices) are working, and then there is the rapid assessment method that tests if things are working based on what the models said would happen.
This program will ideally help the stakeholders be able to make changes sooner if need be.
All of the information is being put in to a dedicated database. There is a scientific advisory group assisting with the program as well as a technical advisory committee to keep everyone up-to-date.
Also assisting with data collection are the pipe keepers, a group of volunteers working for the League to Save Lake Tahoe.
Nephelometric turbidity units, or NTU, are how turbidity is measured. The pipe at Timber Cove measured 150 NTU on Aug. 11. Before this week’s storm no water had come out of that pipe since then. South Lake Tahoe’s multi-million dollar Bijou erosion control project is being credited with the turnaround, according to Aaron Hussmann with the League.
At the end of Wednesday’s gathering there was a panel discussion with representatives from the League, Lahontan, South Lake Tahoe, TRCD and Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.
They said:
• Regular maintenance of erosion projects is having better benefits than expected.
• As technology improves, more improvements can be made.
• The first 20-years of the TMDL will shed a lot of light on what is working.
• Looking at how nature worked before all the development came is critical.
• Controlling sediment at the source is ideal.
• Requiring infiltration systems be part of development or redevelopment projects will help.
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Notes:
- More info about Tahoe Resource Conservation District is online.
- More pipe keepers are needed. Info is online.
Kae, Thanks for your article on storm water runoff going into the lake. This has been a big concern of mine for many years. I’m glad to hear its finally being looked at by volunteers and local agencies.
Good reporting! OLS
Nice work and nice article. We should all do our part and help. I know I will any way I can going forward. Unfortunately, Lake Tahoe is doomed. Unless humans pack up and remove 100% of the roads and buildings and cars we have infested the basin with, this lake is will die a slow ugly death.
it is Krap coming from the Keys and the Golf courses that’s where the problem is.
over watering in the Keys with no regulation for the fertilizer is the biggest problem.
but it is easier for the Agency folks to keep there jobs, chasing the run off from the roads.
Chief Slowroller, I agree. The development of The Truckee Marsh into what became The Tahoe Keys was the biggest environmental disaster to hit Lake Tahoe
except for the massive logging operation in the 1800’s to fill the needs of the insatialble needs for the silver mines in Nevada.
I’m glad people are looking into storm and snowmelt runoff going into the lake, but unfortunately it’s kind of after the fact. Better late than never, I guess.
It’s sad how the people in charge ignore the big polluters to the lake ( Tahoe Keys, golf courses, lake front construction of huge developments, etc. etc) yet they go after the guy out in Meyers or within the town boundaries who is watering his vegetable garden and flower bed on the “wrong day”. The person watering his yard in Sierra Tract is not affecting lake clarity!
Oh , let me guess. The powers that be will hire a “consultant” that will back them up saying that me watering my snow peas is damaging the lake while lakefront construction does no harm.
Amazing how that works! OLS
OLS, are you sure it is the TRPA that is fining people for watering on the wrong day . I could have sworn that it would have been STPUD and that the reason for the water schedule was for water conservation due to the drought not lake clarity, though i may be wrong.
OLS and Slowroller:
I’ve often wondered who exactly was responsible for allowing the Tahoe Keys to be constructed those many years ago and why the residents of this community didn’t (or couldn’t?) put a stop to it. Was it the Tahoe Keys development that actually brought about the TRPA? Any input?
Spouse – 4-mer-usmc
Reloman, It was STPUD that came by to warn me I was watering on the wrong day. I explained I had been out of town for a few days and things were looking a bit parched. I was using, as always, a pistol nozzle on my hose with an on and off handle. Acceptable under STPUD rules, but not by this guy.
I do my best to conserve water and electricty… some folks don’t.Such as Large businesses, casinos, the city of SLT and people with timed sprinklers who water when it’s raining…and all of it eventually ends up in the lake, along with all the crud it carries with it! Be good, OLS
Look up Dillingham Construction Tahoe Keys. In the late 1950’s there was no City at South Shore, no environmental oversight. I think Gary Brand is still around; you might ask him. The huge losses in Lake Tahoe Clarity and massive development brought about the TRPA with help from Reagan and Laxalt.
Spouse of 4-mer-usmc, Heres my recollection of The Tahoe Keys beginnings. It may not be entirely accurate but I’ll do the best I can.
In the 50’s the environmental movement was practically nonexistent. The Keys got pushed through before the city formed in November of 1965. So the dredging started, (in what year I’m not sure), with really no oversight or regulatory agencies in place.
A huge brown, mushroom shaped cloud of silt and mud flowing into the lake from the dredging of the marsh was clearly visible from the higher elevations around the lake.
It smelled terrible too! All that decomposing material from the marsh raised up quite a stink! The channels looked like they were full of chocolate milk but very smelly, like rotten eggs or worse.
We drove out there in the family car before the roads were paved or any houses built. As my Dad turned around the Impala at a dead end he said, “Who the hell would want to live out here”. There were no trees, houses, paved roads… well, just basically a barren place that smelled real bad surrounded by muddy water.
So that’s my remembrance of the beginnings of The Tahoe Keys. Thanks for your time, OLS
Read the book “Saving Lake Tahoe” the best historical record on how we got here.
most of us who have done construction there are aware that the tahoe keys environmental disaster site is largely built on trash fill, such as tires, scrap metal, plastic containers. i am not guessing: i have excavated there, and always run into material like that we would expect to find at the transfer site. this leaches into the lake. the current property owners should be paying a large environmental impact fine.
rock4tahoe; OLS; Slapshot; and 52lexington:
Thank you for taking the time to share your recollections, information, and directing me to the reference materials.
I don’t know how many of you remember the 1967 movie called “The Graduate” but there was a one-word line that when delivered sounded almost obscene and you just kind of felt in your gut that maybe what was being pushed wasn’t going to be so good down the road. That line was “Plastic”, and when I think about the devastation to those marshlands that OLS clearly described I get that same kind of sick feeling. Greed and ignorance–a dangerous combination.
Spouse – 4-mer-usmc
one word: ‘plastics’
52lexington:
That’s right! Geez that was delivered in such a disgusting way.
Spouse – 4-mer-usmc
Volunteers helping Tahoe water quality
The Lahontan Regional Quality Control Board’s total maximum daily load mandate is a 65-year program….
Hmmm how many of you will still be here to see the changes have been successful and we get 100 foot clarity?
“We’ve only done one full year of monitoring. Over time we want to see if there is a downward trend in pollutant load,” Bauwens said.
She said it would take five years’ of data to detect a trend. With monitoring comes budget requirements that may or may not be available.