Lands director says bonds only way state can help save Tahoe environment

Monday, Jan. 26, 1998 | 11:27 a.m.

Nevada voters in 1996 approved $20 million worth of bonds to make environmental improvements at Tahoe. But that's only a quarter of the $82 million identified as Nevada's share of the $906 million needed during the Presidential Tahoe Summit held last June.

California has approved similar bonds and Gov. Pete Wilson has promised to ask voters for another $95 million in Tahoe bonds this year.

Forest projects designed to prevent catastrophic fires and road work to reduce erosion top the list of Tahoe Basin projects being prepared for the 1999 Legislature.

Wilcox told the Advisory board on Natural Resources that Nevada voters approved $20 million in bonds in 1996 but she doesn't see very many other sources for the rest of the money needed within the next 10 years.

"The farther we get down this road, the fewer possible sources there are other than additional bonding," she said. "But I haven't talked with budget or the governor's office about that."

Don Quilici, a member of the advisory board, agreed saying most of the money agencies have must be committed to other needs - primarily those made critical by the dramatic growth in southern Nevada.

Quilici, a retired Nevada Department of Transportation employee, said that agency's spending is driven by growth needs and must commit most of its budget to the south.

Wilcox said the same is most likely true at the Nevada Division of Forestry, Parks, Wildlife and other agencies involved in the Tahoe Basin.

"We have not found any magic source of funding," she said.

Wilcox also told the board that she and other agencies are preparing their first round of requests for the 1999 Legislature - focusing on erosion control and efforts to prevent a catastrophic forest fire in the basin.

She said NDOT will call for projects similar to the road work done last summer around Hidden Beach near Incline Village. That includes widening shoulders, installing traps to catch pollutants from the roads, and building structures to prevent silt from reaching the lake.

Within the forest areas, she said work will be proposed to thin and clear debris from dead tree areas on the Nevada side.

She said similar efforts will be proposed on the California side by that state and within forest service lands around the basin by federal agencies. In addition, she said, there may be proposals to provide grant money to help private land owners do erosion control and other environmental projects on their property.