lahontan water board

The following is a Letter to the Editor from South Tahoe Public Utility District Board Member Jim Jones, a candidate for re-election:

To the Community:

El Dorado County initiated the "Good Neighbor Program" in 2014 after holding a public meeting on October 23 of that year.

Tax Collector Cherie Raffety said during the meeting that the County wanted vacation homes to be a good neighbor instead of creating a situation that causes Sheriff's deputies to be called out for excessive noise. Management companies were to go to neighbors, introduce themselves and leave contact info.

Lake Tahoe’s extraordinary deep water clarity is attributed to its uncommonly clean water which allows sunlight to reach much greater depths than possible in most other water bodies. Fine sediments through stormwater runoff into the lake reduces this clarity.

Heavenly Mountain Resort has received the final approval needed for its major expansion of on-mountain summer activities. After Vail Resorts gained approval from the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) on March 27, they needed the blessing of the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Board, which they received today.

With a $412,900 fine from previous violations in 2007 still outstanding, Tahoe Tom's Gasoline Station in South Lake Tahoe is once again in trouble with the Lahontan Regional Water Board.

Recent water samples from a drinking well at a Stateline area motel near Tahoe Tom's have revealed the presence of the contaminant MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether) at concentrations above the drinking water standard for taste and odor. The detection in MTBE from the well have been increasing during the past year, probably as a result of drought conditions lowering the water table.

With support from California Proposition 84 stormwater grant funds, the Tahoe Resource Conservation District (Tahoe RCD) is leading the effort to measure pollutants in urban runoff at Lake Tahoe to help evaluate the combined effectiveness of pollutant control measures and consistently track and report monitoring findings. This effort, known as the Regional Storm Water Monitoring Program (RSWMP) is a collaborative program supported by regulatory agencies, local government representatives, and scientists in the Lake Tahoe region.

The Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board has approved a grant of $704,000 to the Truckee River Watershed Council for three watershed restoration projects that will correct detrimental impacts to streams and meadows from roads and historical logging activities.

The Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board has accepted Pollutant Load Reduction Plans submitted by El Dorado County, Placer County, and the city of South Lake Tahoe which will reduce fine sediment discharges into Lake Tahoe.

Fire fuel reduction plans and forest thinning projects amounting to about 10,000 acres around South Lake Tahoe have been approved by the Lahontan Regional Water Board. Plans will get underway this summer with efforts lasting anywhere between eight to 10 years, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

The large-scale project has been in the works since the 2007 Angora fire where 254 homes burned.
The following is a joint news release from the U.S. Forest Service and the Lahontan Board.

In a recent guest column, Carl Ribaudo accused the Lahontan Water Board of excessive delay in approving the U.S. Forest Service South Shore Fuel Reduction and Healthy Forest Restoration Project. In...