In the News

New Water Quality Planning Tool for Tahoe: The TMDL
date posted: December 21 2005

Lake Tahoe Report #48
April 19, 2004
By John Cobourn and Heather Segale


In 1972, the Clean Water Act established the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) program for water bodies that do not meet their water quality standards. At Lake Tahoe, the TMDL is a water quality restoration plan designed to reduce the amount of pollution reaching the lake. Research has shown that it is the total annual load or mass of fine sediment and nutrients, and not simply their concentration in stream flow and other sources, that affects the long-term clarity trend. Water clarity has been declining for over 30 years in Lake Tahoe.

The TMDL restoration plan is being developed by scientists under the leadership of the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB) and the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP). It is one of a number of major plans being developed between now and 2007. The TMDL will be a major part of the Lahontan RWQCB’s amended Basin Plan. In addition, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) must update its Regional Plan, and the USDA Forest Service must update its Forest Plan for the Tahoe Basin. Since all three plans must be completed by 2007, the lead agencies have pledged to coordinate their planning in a process known as “Pathway 2007.” The TMDL will also be an important part of those plans.

Over 20 years ago, both the State of California and TRPA set a numeric target for Tahoe’s water quality as a clarity or Secchi Depth of approximately 30 meters (about 100 feet). That is the average transparency level that existed 1967-1971. In recent years, the average Secchi Depth has been about 22 meters (72 feet).

(Insert photo of Secchi disk, with caption: “Lake Tahoe’s water clarity is measured by lowering a white secchi disk into the water and recording the depth to which it can be seen.”)

As a water quality restoration plan, the TMDL will be based on finding the most significant sources of water pollution and developing measures to reduce the amount of nutrients and sediments delivered by each in order to meet the numeric target. Essentially, we must find ways to reduce loading from atmospheric deposition, stream flows, direct runoff, groundwater, and stream channel and shore erosion.

Two computer models are some of the many scientific tools being developed to support the Tahoe TMDL. A watershed model will use data on watershed hydrology, urban runoff, erosion, best management practices (BMP) effectiveness, and regional meteorology to simulate changes in pollutant-loading resulting from different land uses. A water clarity model will examine the lake’s response to loading from the watershed and the atmosphere, with a goal of predicting changes in lake conditions from different load-reduction strategies.

A particularly challenging part of the TMDL program will be allocating the acceptable loading to various activities or pollutant sources, both inside and outside the basin. Lahontan RWQCB and NDEP intend to conduct this process with a high degree of stakeholder participation.

It is hoped that the TMDL will provide science-based, measurable targets for pollutant reduction that will be used in designing restoration activities and watershed planning. This will provide water quality and land-use managers with guidance on the degree of effort needed to achieve the water clarity target. The implementation of the TMDL at Lake Tahoe will be planned according to the principle of adaptive management, by which resource management strategies are constantly refined through a stepwise process of monitoring, data collection, data evaluation, decision-making and action. For more information, see the Lahontan RWQCB’s Web site at www.swrcb.ca.gov/rwqcb6/, and click on the quick link for the TMDL program.