Clinton environmental chief to host water quality workshop

Tuesday, June 17, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

The first workshop, on the issue of Lake Tahoe's water quality, opens a series of events that culminate July 25-26, when President Clinton and Vice President Gore visit Lake Tahoe.

Carol Browner, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, will be at Wednesday's workshop, joined by H. Martin Lancaster, the assistant secretary of the Army for civil works.

Also attending the workshop will be local, state and tribal officials, and representatives of citizen, environmental and business groups.

Charles Goldman of the University of California, Davis, who founded the Tahoe Research Group 30 years ago, will deliver an introductory address on the state of Lake Tahoe, describing what still needs to be done to restore the lake's famed clarity.

"I see the workshop as a call to action," Goldman said. "It's a call to action for better coordination of research and management in the basin."

By bringing together the various federal agencies with authority in the Tahoe Basin, along with researchers from the University of California and the University of Nevada, the workshop should help identify what research is essential, Goldman added.

"We need to implement management practices to reduce the rate of (the lake's evolution) before it is too late, so we don't end up with a green lake," Goldman said.

Mike Schulz, assistant director of the EPA's regional water division in San Francisco, said the workshop will include brainstorming by three groups assigned to separate issues. That includes scientific efforts, planning and watershed management.

Before the workshop begins, Browner and Lancaster will visit the Upper Truckee River marsh near the Tahoe Keys, where a project is planned to restore a wetland area destroyed when the area was developed more than 30 years ago.