League brings awareness to Tahoe storm pipes
By Kathryn Reed
A whole lot of brown gunk is coming out of storm pipes that flow into Lake Tahoe. While that isn’t news, greater awareness is being brought to the issue.
The League to Save Lake Tahoe has identified 50 pipes in the basin carrying runoff water, but believes there are more. One of the problems is there is not just one agency responsible for knowing where the pipes are, what is coming through them and where that water originated from.
Most of the identified pipes go into the lake, with a couple taking water to the Upper Truckee River.
The Venice Drive pipe on the edge of the Upper Truckee River is dry March 17, but that is likely to change when the storm rolls through the basin this week. Photo/Kathryn Reed
It is hard to identify pipes in Nevada because of the different rules when it comes to public-private property at the water’s edge.
In October, the League implemented a pilot program where nine volunteers adopted a pipe. Their job is to get samples of water during storm events, take pictures and write notes of what they see. To date, 250 water samples have been collected.
“We wanted to create a program where the community could do something and get dirty. Something so they could take the issue into their own hands,” explained Darcie Goodman Collins, executive director of the League. “The key message is get involved.”
A couple dozen people attended a meeting last week at Lake Tahoe Community College to learn more about the Pipe Keepers and to hear what the results were of the initial data collection.
“We just want to know if the pipe is a problem and if it’s being taken care of,” explained Nicole Gergans of the League.
Turbidity, or the cloudiness of water, is measured in NTUs, which stands for nephelometric turbidity unit. For Lake Tahoe, the NTU in shallow water is supposed to be no more than 1 NTU or up to 3 NTU near a drain, according to the League.
Here are the average measurements as of mid-March since the program started for this rain-snow season:
• Kaspian Point Pipe – 181 NTU
• Lardin Avenue Pipe – 170 NTU (On Jan. 21, the water was too turbid to measure, which means it was more than 1,000 NTU, the League reported.)
• Meeks Bay Pipe – 21.6 NTU
• Venice Drive Pipe – 181 NTU
• Sunnyside Pipe – 59 NTU
• Upper Truckee River-Highway 50 Pipe – 500 NTU
• Fremont Avenue Pipe – 63.4 NTU.
Besides the League giving out info, Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, Tahoe Resource Conservation District and the Environmental Protection Agency had folks in the room as members of the audience.
Bob Larsen with Lahontan spoke a bit to the group; in large part about how fine sediment is clouding the lake.
“Go upstream of the pipe. That’s where a lot of solutions lie,” Larsen said.
Kristi Boosman with TRPA said collaboration is good and so is identifying all of the pipes.
The League is looking for more people to be part of the Pipe Keepers. For more information, call (530) 541.5388 or email Emily@keeptahoeblue.org.
It is amazing to me that after all the years that these agencies have been studying the lake, that this is just coming to the forefront now. I’m glad it’s being addressed now but where have you all been for all these past 30 years?
While you’re pointing the indignant finger at those responsible, feel free to look in the mirror. The pollution comes from the roads, the traction sand, the houses and commercial properties, the drainage features that keep your property from flooding – all there for the benefit of the public to live and travel in this great place. So let’s get real and everybody accept some responsiblility for the environmental consequences of inhabiting a sensitive high mountain environment.
Mary Lou, I appreciate your frustration but government isn’t going to be able to solve this problem alone. It’s a complicated issue that crosses multiple jurisdictions and will require collaboration between agencies, advocacy groups and citizens. Everyone has a role to play. Complaining is easy. Why not volunteer to help and become part of the solution?
Mary Lou Whitcomb,
It’s been going on for a lot more than thirty years. Here’s how I know.
When I was a little kid I worked 3 yeas at Ski Run Beach and Marina during summer vacations from Bijou Elementary. I worked there from 1963 thru 1965.
There was a large drainage pipe that came through the bulkhead near the boat ramp and it emptied into the marina. One day I lowered myself off the steel bulkhead and climbed into the pipe. A tight fit and was probably not a very smart thing to do.
Just a trickle of water coming out the pipe as I made my way along in the darkness. I could see some light way off in the distance. Then I could hear car traffic as I got closer to the light. I was under hwy 50 looking up through a storm drain!
Thats when I figured out all the run off from the roads goes right into the lake.I crawled back out and never went back in.
Someone here commented putting filters on the storm drains. Good idea, at least it’s a start.
Take Care, Old Long Skiis
I usually shake my head at the actions of TRPA (and other groups), which usually seems more interested in not allowing you to prune your tree, or hold any other property rights, rather than do something to make or keep Lake Tahoe’s water clean. But I’m close to giving too much credit, since TRPA didn’t take the lead on this.
In any case, a very fresh breath of common sense here. Get to take a pause from all of the theoretical and freedom impinging non-sense, and actually go after water that is actually cloudy, and actually running right into the lake. Got to have drain pipes where they are. But there are myriad means, natural and man-made, for filtering sediment. I wish they would prioritize things like this, as opposed to what goes on in some property owner’s back yard, 10 or more miles from shore.
Yes, the clarity problems have been studied for a long time, and scientists developed good hunches fairly quickly. But it’s only been in the last ten years or so that the “science” was able to link the causes and effects together accurately enough to make conclusions that would stick, connecting land use, hydrology, lake dynamics and ecology together. Nutrients and algal growth is part of the problem, but fine sediments (turbidity) are probably the largest single cause of clarity loss. The good news is that there are signs that all the restoration and curb-and-gutter work may be starting to cause improvements, with last year being a “wet” year but acting like a “dry” year in terms of lake clarity. Going back to your point about delay, recall that for the first ~25 years of lake research at Tahoe, various interests resisted what the science was saying. Eventually, the “economic interests” finally realized that the “ecosystem services” (water clarity attracting tourists) were important.
People are acting like nothing has ever been done about storm drains and direct inflows….
And no one has made the distinction between storm drain pipes, and natural hydrologic features that happen to now be in pipes because people built things.
Not saying there isn’t an issue. People seem to be equally interested in the problem and trashing people.
I’ve never been a fan of the League, and felt their propensity for litigation was counter productive to environmental gain in the basin. But, since they’ve “turned over a new leaf” (ie: since Darcie Goodman Collins was hired) and started trying to be part of the solution, I’ve got to give them credit. The pipe keepers data will be very useful in identify where resources are most needed for stormwater treament. League, keep up the good work, and let the lawyers find work somewhere else.
Actually this has been a long time coming and Tahoe Drain Pipes even sells calendars with different pipes for different months on the web. Yuck.