In the News

Citizens Get Chance to Test Water Quality
date posted: December 5 2005

Lake Tahoe Report #117
May 16, 2005
By John Cobourn and Heather Segale

This Saturday, May 21, local agency staff will again host Snapshot Day, a half-day event where families and volunteers can help monitor the water quality of streams flowing into Lake Tahoe. Additional citizen volunteers are still needed.

Trained volunteer team leaders will take small groups of citizens to sampling locations near the lakeshore. Most volunteers are fascinated to learn about water testing and find it fun to work in a friendly group at a beautiful site on one of Tahoe’s spectacular streams.

Snapshot Day begins at 9 a.m., when volunteers meet at Sierra Nevada College in Incline Village, Lake Tahoe Community College in South Lake Tahoe, the Truckee River Watershed Council in Truckee, and Rancho San Rafael Park in Reno. They pick up their sampling supplies and are then sent out to do research that will develop a picture or “snapshot” of water quality and watershed health at a single point in time. They conduct a stream walk, which includes performing a visual assessment and taking photos. They also collect water samples that are analyzed later for nutrients, suspended sediment, turbidity and fecal coliform bacteria. In addition, they measure field parameters, such as temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen and conductivity.

Snapshot Day was started at the lake five years ago by the Lake Tahoe Environmental Education Coalition (LTEEC) and partners. After collection data for five consecutive years, we can now begin to assess trends in water quality parameters over time.

This year’s event will have some important focal points. One priority will be testing for dangerous fecal coliform bacteria in waters near high-traffic areas, such as public beaches and neighborhood dog walking areas. Another goal will be gathering samples from the mouths of all 63 Tahoe tributaries. Currently, only 15 of these are consistently monitored year-round. The samples taken this year will help provide data for the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) study that is being conducted by the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board to help determine nutrient and sediment thresholds.

For the first time, volunteers will measure the amount of stream flow entering the lake from selected streams, measured in cubic feet of water per second. Because the water content of the Tahoe Basin snowpack is currently over 140 percent of average for May, stream inflow to the lake is expected to be the highest since 1999.

In addition to the Lake Tahoe event, Truckee volunteers will be collecting base-line data on all tributaries leading to the Truckee River below Lake Tahoe. Volunteers in Reno will be collecting data for streams in the middle and lower Truckee watershed. This will allow us to better assess the water quality of the whole Truckee River Basin.

Citizen monitoring is becoming more popular around the country as agencies are asked to do more with less resources. Local agencies and research institutions see citizen monitoring as a viable tool for obtaining the necessary data at a low cost.

On Snapshot Day, all volunteers are provided with lunch when they return to their starting points. Sponsoring agencies provide all the sampling and monitoring equipment. Sponsors include California State Water Resource Control Board, Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board, Lake Tahoe Community College, Lake Tahoe Environmental Education Coalition, Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, Nevada Division of State Lands, Sierra Nevada College, Tahoe Environmental Research Center (formerly UC Davis Tahoe Research Group), Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, Truckee River Watershed Council, University of California Cooperative Extension, University of Nevada Cooperative Extension, USDA Forest Service, Washoe Storey Conservation District and Waste Not – Incline Village General Improvement District. For more information, contact Shannon Horgan at the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, (775) 588-4547, ext. 202.

Watch for the “Lake Tahoe Report” in the Tahoe Daily Tribune each Wednesday, and tune in to KOLO-TV News Channel 8 Tuesdays at 5 p.m. to learn more. Next week learn about this year’s Contractors BMP Workshop, to be held in Incline Village on June 1. “The Lake Tahoe Report” is a collaborative effort of the Lake Tahoe Environmental Education Coalition, University of Nevada Cooperative Extension, the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center and the California State Water Resource Control Board. For more information, contact Heather Segale, UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center, (530) 583-3279, or logon to www.lteec.org.