Best Management Practices Retrofit Program
for properties in the Lake Tahoe Basin

Lake Tahoe is one of the three clearest lakes of its size in the world. The purity of Lake Tahoe and its tributary streams are what help make the Tahoe Basin so unique. The Lake's unusual water quality contributes to the scenic beauty of the Region, yet it depends today upon a fragile balance among soils, vegetation and man. The focus of water quality enhancement and protection in the Basin is to minimize man-made disturbance of the watershed and to reduce or eliminate the addition of pollutants that result from development.

It is a major goal of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency to reduce the amount of sediment and algae producing nutrients that get into Lake Tahoe. To achieve that goal the TRPA has established a set of Best Management Practices required of all property owners in the Lake Tahoe Basin. Property owners are required to put BMPs in place by protecting native vegetation from unnecessary damage and restoring disturbed soils on their property.

Disturbed soils, including cut slopes, fill slopes, bare areas and compacted areas contribute large amounts of pollutants to Lake Tahoe and its tributaries. Prevention of excessive or unnecessary soil disturbance is a key element of the TRPA's policy on water quality.

What Are Best Management Practices?
At Lake Tahoe, Best Management Practices (BMPs) are defined as "structural and nonstructural practices proven effective in soil erosion control and management of surface runoff in the Lake Tahoe Region." Eroding soils and surface water runoff transport pollutants, sediment, and nutrients to the Region's rivers and streams, which lead to Lake Tahoe. Pursuant to subsection 25.5.A of the TRPA Code of Ordinances, all property owners in the Tahoe Basin are required to install infiltration facilities designed to accommodate the volume of runoff from a six-hour storm with a two-year recurrence probability (or a twenty year/one hour storm, which is approximately one inch of precipitation in an hour). These infiltration facilities are BMPs.

Best Management Practices vary from site-to-site, and include temporary best management practices and permanent best management practices. Temporary BMPs are utilized to keep sediment on-site when an area is disturbed by construction. Permanent BMPs are utilized to minimize erosion on residential, commercial, and public service properties when they aren't disturbed by active construction.

Sometimes BMPs are relatively simple, such as revegetating a bare slope behind a home, and sometimes they are more complex, such as a storm water pre-treatment system for a large parking area. However, whether simple or complex, BMPs are site-specific. Adequate BMP requirements and correct installation can be accurately determined with a site evaluation by a professional with your local Resource Conservation District (RCD) or the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA).

Why Are Best Management Practices Important?
Lake Tahoe is losing its crystal water clarity at the alarming rate of more than a foot a year. At the current rate of decline, it is estimated that Lake Tahoe will lose its blue brilliance in just ten years. Non-point source (NPS) pollution, or pollution originating from many diffuse sources is contributing to the decline in Lake Tahoe's water clarity. NPS pollution is caused when rain or snowmelt causes overland flow that transports various pollutants from the ground's surface directly into the surface waters that lead to Lake Tahoe.

Research has found that the addition of sediment and nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus to Lake Tahoe promotes algal blooms that result in a further loss of water clarity. Therefore, the primary objective of BMPs is to retain surface runoff, with the nutrients and sediment that it carries, onsite and out of Lake Tahoe.
The BMP Retrofit Program is funded through several Clean Water Act grants from the Environmental Protection Agency [Section 319 (h) and 104(b)(3)]. TRPA's Erosion Control Team is entirely grant funded through two Clean Water Act Section 319(h) grants.

Who Needs To Implement Best Management Practices?
All property owners in the Lake Tahoe basin need to implement BMPs, whether they own residential or commercial properties. Public service property managers are also required to implement BMPs, however, public lands may be on a slightly different implementation schedule.

All the watersheds in the Tahoe Basin were prioritized for BMP implementation depending on various factors including soil erodability, steepness of terrain, ratio of development to undisturbed land, and relative inputs of nutrients and sediment from the watershed. Utilizing this data, the watersheds were determined to be Priority One, Two or Three.

Property owners in Priority One watersheds are required under Section 25 of the TRPA Code of Ordinances to implement BMPs on their property by October 15, 2000.

Subsequent target dates for full implementation of BMPs are October 15, 2006 for property owners in Priority Two watersheds, and October 15, 2008 for property owners in Priority Three watersheds.

Coldwell Banker Incline Village Realty
917 Tahoe Blvd., Suite 202
Incline Village, NV 89451
Copyright © 2004 Trevor Smith
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