Tahoe beaches continue to wash away due to high lake level

Monday, May 22, 2000 | 9:40 a.m.

With higher-than-normal lake levels and high winds, some local beaches have washed away in recent weeks to continue a trend that has some people worried about the future of Tahoe's famed clarity.

"My beach washed out a while back," Chuck Bluth, owner of the Cal-Neva Resort here, told the North Lake Tahoe Bonanza. "My neighbor's beach, which never washes out, is gone.

"With 125 miles of shoreline (around Tahoe), that's tons of dirt washing into the lake."

After six wet winters, high lake levels appear to many to be causing substantially more erosion than in past years. Eroding dirt is full of phosphorus, which feeds algae growth that dims the lake's clarity.

Visibility in the lake once reached down as far as 160 feet, the world's clearest waters prior to widespread logging in the Tahoe Basin last century.

Scientists say visibility now stands at about 60 feet, and it's still getting worse.

League to Save Lake Tahoe officials said the lake is 6 feet higher than its historic norm because of the dam at the mouth of the Truckee River in Tahoe City, Calif.

Artificially high lake levels can "load sediments into the lake," said Rochelle Nason, the league's executive director.

"I don't think it's the number one problem (facing Tahoe). But it needs to be addressed."

Now, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency is awaiting results of a first-of-its-kind study by the Reno-based Desert Research Institute.

The intent of the study is to determine what impact the lake level has on shoreline erosion, said TRPA spokeswoman Pam Drum.

While there has been speculation that high lake levels cause major erosion that harms the lake's clarity, no one knows for sure, she said.

If it turns out the lake level has an impact on shoreline erosion, the issue could be a heated one.

"It's a complicated issue, legally and historically," Drum said.

Truckee River water users have expressed fears the study could lead to restrictions on how much water can be stored at Tahoe. The Truckee provides water for the Reno area and Fallon-area farmers.

Sierra Pacific Power Co., the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District and the Washoe County Water Conservation District last year sent a letter to TRPA downplaying the matter.

But some property rights and environmental groups have called for lowering the lake level a few inches to save beaches and reduce erosion.

Federal water master Garry Stone said Tahoe's level last week was just below its high-water mark of 6,229.1 feet.