Lake Tahoe projects focus on environment

Tuesday, Feb. 18, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Half the cost of the 383 improvements, projects and studies would be covered by private investors and the rest by public agencies, state and local authorities.

For the next five years, the program calls for completion of 116 projects at a cost of $295 million, ranging from construction of a bicycle trail around Tahoe to treatment of runoff from streets and casino parking lots in Stateline.

Adoption of the program, to be considered by the TRPA in April, would shift the agency's strategy from regulating development to actively pursuing improvements, Executive Director Jim Baetge says.

"Many of us have been looking backward at what has happened at Lake Tahoe," Baetge added. "But what this program addresses is how we are going to get to where we want to go."

"You only have to look around to see the direction is changing around the basin," he said. "We're really on the cusp of a major change."

Baetge also said the cost to complete the projects isn't as daunting as the public might think. Many of the top-priority projects for the next five years already have been funded, or construction already has started.

Among them are the Park Avenue redevelopment project in South Lake Tahoe, the East Shore and North Shore forest projects and the first phase of Heavenly Ski Resort's expansion.

When completed, most of the projects will reduce the amount of soil erosion that scientists believe is largely responsible for depositing nutrients that increase algae growth and cloud Lake Tahoe.

In April, the TRPA will consider a package that includes the improvement program, a 1996 threshold evaluation report, and a proposed residential and commercial allocation program.

Together, the three programs will provide a blueprint for restoring those parts of the Tahoe environment that have suffered the most from human development.

The evaluation shows modest progress in achieving various environmental standards at the lake - but Baetge said it also documents the difficulty in achieving the goals by restrictions on development alone.

"The report represents substantial progress in some areas, especially air quality, but it also shows that the regulatory process has not led to adequate progress in achieving many of the thresholds, such as restoring the wetlands," he said.

The report shows, among other things, that Tahoe's clarity continues to decline although the rate has slowed. The agency hopes to restore Tahoe's famed clarity to 110 feet by 2007. Since 1968, when regular monitoring began, the clarity has decreased from about 102 feet to 71 feet in 1995.