Cyanide spill could affect local food supplies ... European Union considering environmental emergency force ... Lake Tahoe threatened by algae growth ... high spring tides to threaten Tuvalu this weekend ... alert at New York's Indian Point 2 nuclear plant ... American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy ranks most and least efficient vehicles ... alternative auto fuels still too costly and unavailable to achieve cuts in petroleum ... Global Warming affecting migration and hibernation patterns ... peregrine falcons in New York City ... Internet-connected bird counting effort ... sharks in danger of overfishing ... Eco-Activists say the UN's Intergovernmental Forum on Forests "has moved the debate on forest conservation not forward but backward."

Nature's News

-- Anonymous, February 16, 2000

Answers

Patrick,

At the moment focusing on one of your Natures News links. Used to live up at Lake Tahoe for a short while.

Diane

Natures News Summary...

A popular recreation area that may be in danger: Lake Tahoe 'Gravely Imperiled' by Algae Growth, Scientists Say (Jennifer Warren, Los Angeles Times -- Feb. 16, 2000)

"Lake Tahoe's legendary clarity could be irreversibly doomed within a decade without a heroic effort to stem the growth of algae that is turning its waters a murky green, according to a scientific study to be released today... Conducted by government scientists and university researchers in California and Nevada, the... report says Tahoe's clarity continues to decline at a rate of about 1 foot per year. In the 1960s, a white disc resembling a dinner plate used to measure Tahoe's clarity was visible at depths of 105 feet. Today, that same plate is visible only as deep as 66 feet, and might be seen only as deep as 40 feet by 2030 if current trends continue, the report said... Scientists say that unless urgent measures are taken now, the lake will become stratified within 30 years, with a warm algae-rich layer on top and a cold, sterile layer below it. Once stratification happens, it's virtually impossible to reverse. (UC Davis atmospheric scientist, Thomas) Cahill said that the only way to stem the degradation is to reduce the pollutions per person per day afflicting the popular region. One way to achieve that, he suggests, is to curb vehicle use in the basin--much as Yosemite National Park has done--and transport people around by light rail or buses fueled by natural gas... The report was a $2.6-million collaborative effort by government scientists and scholars at UC Davis and the University of Nevada at Reno. The study breaks ground by analyzing data in a comprehensive way and creating an emergency road map for land-use decisions and environmental management."

L.A. Times...

http://www.latimes.com/news/asection/20000216/ t000015092.html

[Fair Use: For Educational/Research Purposes Only]

Wednesday, February 16, 2000

Lake Tahoe 'Gravely Imperiled' by
Algae Growth, Scientists Say

 Environment: Study says the lake's noted clarity could be irreversibly doomed without a major effort to curb elements linked to pollution, construction.

By JENIFER WARREN, Times Staff Writer

SACRAMENTO--Lake Tahoe's legendary clarity could be irreversibly doomed within a decade without a heroic effort to stem the growth of algae that is turning its waters a murky green, according to a scientific study to be released today.

"Time is short," concludes the executive summary of the 1,200-page report. "Lake Tahoe is gravely imperiled."

Conducted by government scientists and university researchers in California and Nevada, the long-awaited study comes three years after President Clinton held a lakeside summit focusing national attention on the Tahoe Basin.

The report says Tahoe's clarity continues to decline at a rate of about 1 foot per year. In the 1960s, a white disc resembling a dinner plate used to measure Tahoe's clarity was visible at depths of 105 feet. Today, that same plate is visible only as deep as 66 feet, and might be seen only as deep as 40 feet by 2030 if current trends continue, the report said.

"The situation is urgent," said Thomas Cahill, an atmospheric scientist at UC Davis and member of the research team. "And it's going to take some dramatic measures to turn things around."

The algae's clouding of the lake is caused by nitrogen, phosphorus and other nutrients that enter through a variety of routes. Cahill said more than half of the nutrients come from the air. Among the sources are wood smoke, diesel exhaust and sand that is applied to roads in winter, then gets ground into a fine powder that winds up in the lake when snow melts.

Construction is also to blame. In 1960, just 500 houses ringed the lake. Twenty years later, there were 19,000 homes. Runoff from development enters the lake through ground water and tributaries that feed the lake.

Once the nutrients are in the water, they remain there for decades, overwhelming the lake's ability to cleanse itself, said John Reuter, a lake ecologist who has studied Tahoe for 22 years.

"The lake is so deep and so big, a lot of these pollutants that affect the clarity can actually stay in there and be recycled for 10 or 20 years," Reuter said. "So it's almost like compound interest in a bank account, where this stuff just continues to build up and build up faster than it can leave the lake."

Scientists say that unless urgent measures are taken now, the lake will become stratified within 30 years, with a warm algae-rich layer on top and a cold, sterile layer below it. Once stratification happens, it's virtually impossible to reverse.

Cahill said that the only way to stem the degradation is to reduce "the pollutions per person per day" afflicting the popular region. One way to achieve that, he suggests, is to curb vehicle use in the basin--much as Yosemite National Park has done--and transport people around by light rail or buses fueled by natural gas.

"We should also relocate major roadways, like Highway 50, away from the lake shore," Cahill said. "We need to create ecological buffers [between the roads and the lake], marshes that can capture runoff before it hits the lake."

One estimate by a regional planning group said basic erosion control measures and water treatment projects would cost more than $900 million and take a decade to construct.

Aside from the warning about clarity, the report addressed air-quality issues, finding that South Lake Tahoe is the only California city where ozone levels have risen during the past 20 years. In most cities, including Los Angeles, ozone has been on the decline.

Scientists concluded that the culprit behind Tahoe's problem is the rapid growth of suburbs east of Sacramento, particularly along the Interstate 80 and U.S. 50 corridors. Pollution generated there gets blown uphill on the afternoon breeze, and it settles over the lake.

Researchers also found that several animal species once abundant in the Tahoe basin have vanished or been lost. They include the Lahontan cutthroat trout, Sierra Nevada red fox, willow flycatcher and yellow-legged frog made famous by Mark Twain's story "The Jumping Frogs of Calaveras County."

The report was a $2.6-million collaborative effort by government scientists and scholars at UC Davis and the University of Nevada at Reno. The study breaks ground by analyzing data in a comprehensive way and creating an emergency road map for land-use decisions and environmental management.

-- Anonymous, February 17, 2000

From U.C. Davis, web-site...

http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/newsreleases/02.00/news_researchfacilities.html

[Fair Use: For Educational/Research Purposes Only]

February 16, 2000

Lake Tahoe Scientists to Link Research Facilities

A new agreement among scientists and research institutions conducting environmental studies of the Lake Tahoe basin will integrate all of the lake's research facilities, leaders of three institutions announced today during a meeting in Kings Beach.

To be known as the Tahoe Environmental Science System, the agreement will integrate the new University of California, http:// trg.ucdavis.edu/, Davis, lab complex with research facilities being planned by the University of Nevada, Reno. The agreement was signed this morning by officials of UC Davis, UNR and the Desert Research Institute. Its intent is to encompass different kinds of facilities to ensure that duplication is avoided and cost savings realized.

"It is our hope that scientists can move freely among these facilities, and that TESS will eliminate competition, encourage collaboration, and reduce the costs of conducting research at Lake Tahoe," said UC Davis Chancellor Larry N. Vanderhoef.

The agreement was announced concurrently with the U.S. Forest Service's release of a major Tahoe Watershed Assessment report, in which UC Davis, UNR and DRI scientists collaborated to compile 20 years of research about Tahoe's water quality, air quality, forests and economy. The report is intended to guide future Tahoe research and allow for informed policy decisions to restore and preserve the lake.

The facilities sharing agreement builds upon a memorandum signed last August by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, UNR, UC Davis, DRI, U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Forest Service. That memorandum states the agencies and researchers will work together to foster research to ensure sound environmental management of the Tahoe basin.

The facilities that will be part of the new agreement include UC Davis' Lake Tahoe Center for Environmental Research in Tahoe City, UNR's Lake Tahoe Field Research Station at Thunderbird Lodge and the proposed Environmental Research and Policy Center, run by DRI.

UC Davis' Tahoe City lab was established in 1958. The limited lab used by the Tahoe Research Group is scheduled to expand into a new, state-of-the-art research center with public education space, instructional technology and lab space for water and air quality investigations.

Media contact:
-- Lisa Klionsky, News Service, (530) 752-9841, lrklionsky@ucdavis.edu

-- Anonymous, February 17, 2000

Trying to locate a link to the 1,200 page report... as mentioned in the L.A. Times article...

 "Time is short," concludes the executive summary of the 1,200-page report. "Lake Tahoe is gravely imperiled." 

UC Davis Tahoe Research Group
http://trg.ucdavis.edu/

Dont quite think this is it...

Lake Tahoe Moving Beyond the Conflict
Past, Current, Future Scientific Contributions by the Tahoe Research Group
http:// trg.ucdavis.edu/research/conflict.html

-- Anonymous, February 17, 2000

At this point the fastest way to find out if the 1,200 page report is online is to contact Professor Cahill directly... either by phone or e-mail.

UC Davis Tahoe Research Group
http://trg.ucdavis.edu/

Who... (Associated Researchers)

[snip]

http:// trg.ucdavis.edu/who/default.html#5

Thomas A. Cahill, professor emeritus in the Department of Physics, received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1965. His research includes studies on air pollution; air particulates, especially fine particulates and haze; global air pollution patterns; aerosol levels in U.S. national parks, including Grand Canyon; identifying sources of air particulate pollution; air quality in the Sierra Nevada mountains, especially Lake Tahoe, Mono Lake and Owens Lake; non-military applications of a particle accelerator, including analysis of historical documents; non-destructive analyses in art and forensics, including rare documents such as Dead Sea Scrolls, Gutenberg Bible and Vinland Map. [Interesting aside note! ] He is the founder and co-director of the Crocker Historical and Archaeological Projects; founder and head of the UC Davis Air Quality Group; principal investigator of the air quality monitoring network of U.S. national parks and monuments; and consultant to the United Nations Global Atmospheric Watch, the California Attorney General (Mono Lake, Owens Lake, Lake Tahoe) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (national fine particulate standard).

###

Quick aside check to see if hes listed under UC Davis Faculty...
http://www.ucdavis.edu/ faculty.html

UC Davis Faculty and Staff Directory
http:// www.ucdavis.edu/cgi-bin/phonebook

CAHILL, Thomas A

Phone: 530-752-4674
Title: Professor/Delta Grp
Department: LAWR
Office: 1214 Engineering II
E-mail: tacahill@ucdavis.edu

-- Anonymous, February 17, 2000

Sometimes... ya gotta laugh... in response to my e-mail...

Subject: Re: Link to Tahoe Report?
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2000 13:28:13 -0800
From: "Thomas A. Cahill" tacahill@ucdavis.edu
To: "Diane J. Squire" sacredspacesfs@earthlink.net

Diane -

Would that there were! In fact, there is not even a report out yet (despite what they said). At most, it was a draft with pretty covers. I have until Monday to review our section. There were some bad slip ups in final editing.

Soon!

The key person is Chris Knopp at

Knopp_Chris/r5_ltbmu@fs.fed.us

Tom

-- Anonymous, February 17, 2000