Opinion: Fed up with 40 years of hypocrisy in Tahoe
By David Triano
I moved to South Lake Tahoe as an 8-year-old in 1973. After college and eight years of professional pursuits, I chose my hometown of South Lake Tahoe as the place to raise my two sons. Simply put, I love Lake Tahoe.
Over the years, I have seen the many special interest groups clambering for attention in our town. I was here when the TRPA initiated their building moratorium, when they fined us for cutting down trees on our own land, and other blunders. I was here to see our once-successful airport be run into the ground by a city council hungry for revenue.
Heck, I was even here to see a nascent “domestic terrorist” blow up Harveys.
I am probably one of the most “environmentally appreciative” and careful residents of this town. I do my best to be a good steward of this area when I am hiking with our Boy Scout troop (I am an assistant Scout master), mountain biking the ascent of Oneidas, or enjoying our beaches. As I said, I love Lake Tahoe.
And so it is that I am stepping out on a limb, so to speak, to alert our community to a situation of grave environmental impact that has continued since I was a boy. In 1974, my parents Ron and Carolyn purchased Lot 2, TK1 in the Tahoe Keys area. The lot is on Dover Drive, a tiny side road off of Tahoe Keys Boulevard. It backs up to a beautiful designated wildfowl refuge, the meadow on the west side of the Upper Truckee River. The whole area is also designated a 10-year flood plain, which means that when water levels are high from spring runoff, the meadow floods from the Truckee, and the contents of the meadow empty directly into the lake.
The only downside to my parent’s lot was that at the time (1974), Dover Drive was also the access road to a long dirt road leading to the Tahoe Keys Property Owners Maintenance Yard. My parents were assured that this was a temporary situation, and that the yard would be phased out “soon”.
For almost 40 years now, our family has tolerated 100 passages of this dirt road each day, and many days quite a few more, I have counted over 250 passages in one day. The vehicles using this silt road range from passenger cars speeding along as high as 30 mph to huge semi-trucks pulling double trailers, full size loaders, and every type of utility truck. Each one of them trails a huge column of dust and silt. Are you beginning to see the issue here?
We are all encouraged to “do your BMPs”, park on paved lots only so as not to disturb the dust, practice “leave no trace” ethics in virtually every aspect of our lives here in Lake Tahoe and so many other small things, all in the push to maintain a certain clarity level in the lake, while the Tahoe Keys Property Owners Maintenance Yard has produced massive dust and silt that goes directly into a designated 10-year flood plain, a wildfowl refuge. In the winter, all runoff from the dirt road goes directly into the meadow. Their yard contains a drainage culvert that drains right into this environmentally sensitive area, and for 40 years the TKPOA has “enlarged” their yard by dumping dirt, yard waste, and other detritus on the fringes of the yard. I remember what the yard was like when I was a kid, and to see how big it is it now is quite shocking. For 40 years, various general managers at the TKPOA have promised my parents that the road would be paved, that the yard would be closed, all statements that have proved to be lies.
Here’s where some really distasteful hypocrisy comes into view: The land the yard and its silt access road are on are owned by the California Tahoe Conservancy. They gave the TKPOA a 99-year lease, and for decades have turned a blind eye to the pollution occurring on their own property. What exactly are they conserving?
Also disgusting is the lack of attention to this yard by the TRPA and Lahontan. You see, the practices of the TKPOA yard grossly violate TRPA and Lahontan codes and regulations, and for decades both organizations have also ignored this fact and allowed the TKPOA yard to keep pumping pollution into our lake. My family has complained to all of the organizations I have listed for decades, with no substantive action. The issue always gets shuffled under the table, the workers in the yard are told to slow down, or (as they have done in the last day) they spread stone gravel on the silt road. I guess this is supposed to be their BMPs. In three weeks the gravel will have all sublimated into the silt and migrated into the meadow. The gravel does little to mitigate the billowing clouds of silt, and I have lots of video and still photography that document this fact. I will soon upload the videos to YouTube, so look for “Tahoe Gross Polluter” to judge for yourself.
CTC, TRPA, and Lahontan: You are the worst kind of hypocrites, and you are not enforcing the regulations that your existence mandates.
I would invite anyone in the community out to view this circus of environmental destruction. Come on by Dover Drive, have a lemonade with me (if you can tolerate the dust) and watch how our wonderful watchdog organizations ignore their mandates. They do this while claiming to be working for the health of the lake. Pure environmental hypocrisy is the result of their existence. My latest efforts to contact the TRPA have gone without a return call. The only organizations that have stepped forward to see this travesty for what it is are the Sierra Club and the League to Save Lake Tahoe, who I am now actively engaged with to fight for this wholesale pollution to finally end.
I am a resident of South Lake Tahoe who loves his community. I love the beauty that surrounds us. I am a man who believes that I can best determine my own fate and way in the world, without government intervention. I will not tolerate the blatant abuse of my childhood home by local agencies and the TKPOA any longer.
I love Lake Tahoe too, it’s the government and the unproductive, arrogant people that work in it that I can’t stand…
Isn’t this situation indicative of our regulatory agency’s right of absolute “autonomy”. We poor citizens are pulled and battered by these agency’s to comply with every code and then pay every over priced permit fee. Not to mention the fines levied out that rank worse than traffic violations. I placed a small shed to the rear of my property and was given one week to remove it or the TRPA would fine me $10,000 a week for non-compliance.
I feel for my fellow Tahoe neighbor and would gladly sign a petition to stop these gross polluters. Tell me where to sign.
Do what I say, not what I do…..
Thanks David for writing this story. Unfortunately, none of this surprised me. I would like to also state that I have lived here for decades, hooked by the love of the area. I do my best to be a steward of my piece of land and respect others’ rights and the notion of protecting the lake. I am not an enviro-nazi either, just someone who thinks common sense ideas can make things better. Problem is, the rules are not enforced equally.
Driving by Sawmill Rd recently something occurred to me. After feeling initial pride in the community for building a bike path over there I was struck by the absurdity. Not about the bike path but about the overwhelming irony of all the drainage work being done along the road by Garcia, who I think is doing a nice job by the way.
So here on one side of Twin Peaks we feel the drainage is so critical that we spend a whole summer overbuilding drains and retention ponds with rocks and pipes to mitigate runoff and on the other side, right around the corner, we allow all manner of soil destroying throttle twisters to roost up at the Sand Pit! HUH!? Further, right in Washoe Meadows, Mr. Amacker is allowed to run his heavy equipment and quarry business RIGHT INTO THE MEADOW, driving directly over Angora Creek with all the blowing dust and dirt with huge UNPAVED areas in what surely is a giant SEZ. HUH?! (and by the way the Amacker family is opposing the continuation of the bike path to Hwy 50 on a little sliver of their land next to the road so kids won’t have a safe separated bike path and will be much more likely to get PLOWED by their very trucks they are polluting the meadow with)…nice community feel there guys-
anyway, now the agencies want every homeowner to install their little BMPs, which I eventually will, in order to keep those same creeks clear of dirt. NUTS.
Stop the gross violators first. Prove you are serious about things on a large scale and the homeowners will then believe in your vision.
I’m sure it took guts to write that article, but good for you! Perhaps some TV news show might want to do a story???
First of all, anyone in the Keys really dies t have. Strong leg to stand on regarding the environment and the lake. I do agree that these agencies are a joke, but so isthe Sierra club and their mission to close off the wilderness to humans. Anyone complaining about the Sand Pits is misinformed or a total Granola. It’s an isolated area with no water runoff, so chill.
got it, Granola if it gets in the way of your dirt biking-
no water runoff huh? glad we have an erosion control expert on hand-
I, too, have seen the same hypocrisy. I have seen the utter disregard for the rules by those who are supposedly there to enforce those laws. The TRPA, the USFS, the City, the County, the State, etc. Well written and courageous opinion piece. Thank you.
With the main purpose of getting people to ride their bikes from Meyers to the Y, why is the bike path built completely out of the way from Elks Club to Sawmill Pond? This bike path should have been built along hwy 50 to begin with. More inept planning, design and stubborness from government agencies with their heads up their….
And all those BMPs, they make no sense as long as motorizsed off-roading is allowed in the Lake Tahoe water shed.
CA Tahoe Conservancy Contact: Executive Staff
Patrick Wright
Executive Director
(530) 543-6002
pwright@tahoe.ca.gov
Everyone call or email Mr. Wright today to make them aware YOU are aware.
DAVID YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE ENVIRONMENTAL PEOPLE THEY DO NOT WANT ANYONE DOING ANYTHING HERE IN THE BASIN THERE GOAL IS FOR EVERYONE TO GO AWAY AND LEAVE EVERYTHING ALONE. AND THEY WILL NOT BE SATISFIED WITH ANY OTHER SOLUTION AND THEY WILL INTERFERE WITH ANY OTHER SOLUTION. ALL THE GROUPS FIGHT TILL NOTHING GETS DONE AND THAT IS THERE AIM.
take a breath Mr. Dewitt, we’re all in this fight together…oh and your CAPS LOCK is on-
Most likely a 1st step in restoring the filter to the lake, of the biggest river going in the lake, will be the removal of most of the keys subdivision. I’m burnt on people behind sierra club tables pretty much saying anything invented in the last few hundred years or so shouldn’t be used at Tahoe. Look at how the horses gouge the SEZ behind Zephyer Cove Resort(at least it was like that in the early 90s).
For decades I watched the Forest Service Basin Management employees drive across the SEZ vacant lot on Glorene Ave. Funny that shortly after they moved to their elaborate new head quarters next to the collage the lot was finally closed off with boulders.
Still walk my dog across the lot and behind the Brothers bar. You should see the over watering/flooding in the old forest service center. NOW RENTED BY THE CONSERVATION DISTRICT!!!!!!
it’s obvious that to solve anything we all must adopt a faith-based paradigm…
The same could be argued about the South Lake Tahoe airport. And other examples. Unfortunately, very few things in this world are perfect… even at Lake Tahoe.
‘Perfect’ might be good to hold up as an ultimate standard (but no one reasonably expects to realize) but this article includes ‘hypocrisy’ which on a governmental & regulatory level is rampant. . .
When this gentleman was 8, I was Catering Director for a very busy enterprise here, after spending a decade at Harrah’s, leaving a post in Public Relations.
Since that time, the business environment has become toxic, as newcomers are pulled about by increasingly out-of-touch (think ‘turnstile’ turnover) agencies who have taken the “lead” in Tahoe’s supposed success.
Wrong ! – as the country club “go along to get along” mentality allows the slippage in the community to continue, ideas that were broached 15-20 years ago are now heralded as ‘new’, at a current point where any financial wherewithal to do them is gone – when they could’ve had positive effect when first brought up to stem the downward trend now upon us. . .
The ‘new’ ideas mentioned above cannot reasonably be assumed to work, given the “I have mine, where is yours going to come from ? ” attitudes now prevailing.
I agree that those who can step up and correct their own ways will end up with the credibility to create the appropriate trust – especially when we are expected to believe in what they are wanting to call a “future” – always suspect when such things are left to go on in continuing slipshod fashion. . .
Great article…. I completely agree.. To many areas in major need are overlooked and neglected meanwhile tens of millions of dollars are spent on things with very little justification for environemental gain. Thank you Dave for having the guts to stand up to this.
I hope your article gets some proper action from the proper agencies! Best wishes.:)
While we appreciate the concerns expressed by Mr. Triano, we would like to take this opportunity to correct some factual inaccuracies.
First, and foremost, the Conservancy did not grant a 99 year lease to the Tahoe Keys Property Owners Assoc (TKPOA) for their two acre corporation yard. Rather, the Conservancy inherited an existing, long term lease when it acquired over 200 acres at the mouth of the Upper Truckee River pursuant to a litigation settlement. While the Conservancy, on its own, would not enter into a lease for such a use, we felt that the acquisition was more than justified given its extraordinary wildlife, water quality and public access values.
Since acquisition, the Conservancy has worked with TKPOA and other parties to find a suitable relocation site for the corporation yard. These negotiations are ongoing.
Lastly, it should be noted that the Conservancy is not a regulatory agency. As a property owner, we are subject to the same rules and regulations that govern all other properties in the Basin.
Ray Lacey
Deputy Director
California Tahoe Conservancy
Thank you for your reply, Mr. Lacey, and for bringing the Dillingham transfer of this land to CTC into greater clarity for me. It doesn’t change the situation, but it’s good to know more about the birth of this travesty. This morning I had a productive conversation with two CTC employees who took the time to come out to carefully assess the situation, and we discussed action directions that may yield some results.
I cannot say the same about the exchange I had with TKPOA General Manager Greg Feet, but the Keys residents have come to learn that Mr. Feet really tries very hard to do absolutely nothing in his position, so I was not surprised.
I agree with so many long-time residents about the many issues on both political sides of the equation here, and for your kind words. What this usually leads to is inaction; we spend so much time arguing about the trees we miss the forest, we get tired of the arguing and double-speak and simply quiet down. Well, not this time, I fully intend to pursue this until the damage stops.
looks like this is further evidence of the bro-deal the keys seems to have working on many levels, another example being the lukins water system that the rest of us will eventually have to absorb, at taxpayer’s expense, and the special ‘no meter’ treatment that system affords ‘keys members’…
Selective Enforcement! At least that’s what I call it. If you have money and influence with local agencies and local govt. officials you can get away with all kinds of stuff around here.
The USFS can leave unattended burning slash piles but you and I can’t even burn a pile of pine needles and that’s even with a water hose in hand. Tahoe Keys residents won’t be metered for watering their large lawns but everyone else on So. Shore sees their water bills skyrocket. Goodbye vegetable garden Old Long Skiis! The city waters many of its properties on a daily basis, do they get warned by STPUD? “you’re watering on the wrong day”, I highly doubt it.
So on it goes. I’ve lived here a long time and have seen how things work in this town. Nice place to live but there’s lots of corruption, hypocrisy, and I might add far too many regulations that only apply to those without the proper connections.
Keep up the good fight Dave! Take care, Old Long Skiis
Hey David, I stopped by your house today for a lemonade, but no one was outside. While I was there I noticed your house doesn’t have BMPs either. Why is it that you expect the tkpoa to comply with these standards, but you are not setting an example yourself? It seems like you should set an example of the proper way to live next a highly sensitive watershed you discussed. Aren’t you in violation as well? I am not disagreeing with your article, but it is best to lead by example in my opinion.
Can we all agree that the unregulated, “Let’s make money” Tahoe Keys project was a disaster for Lake Tahoe?
This whole effort is part of my project to restore my parents home, bring the property into compliance with BMP’s, and make their home a clean and safe haven for their retirement. Even experts that I have spoken with at El Dorado Pollution Control agree that installing our BMP’s before the yard is rectified is problematic, in that the silt and gravel they generate could quickly overwhelm our installation. The elephant in the room needs attention first…..
Until someone has the courage to use eminent domain and take over and eliminate the Tahoe Keys , restore the keys to its natural state, the lake clarity goal remains a joke.
Frank is right