Latest news with #TahoeRegionalPlanningAgency
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Tahoe agency seeks state funds to advance development agenda couched as environmentalism
View of Lake Tahoe in Nevada (Photo courtesy P. Tsigdinos) A sobering Lake Tahoe investigative journalism series by CalMatters arrived at an inopportune time for the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA). The deep dive into how public monies are used at Lake Tahoe landed as the agency comes before Nevada and California legislatures seeking millions of dollars for its operating budget. TRPA will be in Carson City on April 2. As explained in an NPR CapRadio interview, a team of reporters spent months requesting and analyzing documents from the agency and submitting public records requests to federal, state and county sources. What came to light is that the Tahoe agency and a 'myriad' of funders from both states and the five counties in the Tahoe basin along with deep-pocketed private interests (which include resort executives and developers on non-profit boards) have established a closed loop system for advancing pet projects. Items include: a consultant-generated rebranding of tourism as 'sustainable'; photo opp summits; trail construction into once pristine shorelines and forests; and, despite a court order to cease and desist: poisoning water in the Tahoe Keys to ease boat access. As one of the investigative journalists noted (audio time stamp 25.58) 'they're all giving money to each other through grants or what have you – it's this very complex interwoven web that's hard to dissect for sure.' That's not to say TRPA doesn't have annual independent financial audits of its operations. It does. The last occurred for the financial year ending June 2024. The CalMatters analysis goes beyond the agency's day-to-day operations. TRPA has been at the nexus of billions of dollars over decades. It reported: 'About $581 million — slightly more than a third of the government and private money spent in the Tahoe region since 2010 — has funded recreation, transit, paved path and trail projects. Included is $40 million for a new sports and aquatics center. Those types of expenses are growing in recent years: Since 2015, they now amount to 43% of the funding, twice the share of the previous five years.' Who are among the beneficiaries of new recreation attractions? Multinational resort operators like Vail Resorts; it offered up a vice president to join TRPA on a recent lobbying trip to Washington D.C. along with the head of the previously named North Lake Tahoe Resort Association and other Tahoe tourism representatives. Nevada Current also found a bias to recreational spending when it investigated where dollars in TRPA's Environmental Improvement Program were flowing. That reporting occurred as a bill introduced by Nevada Republican Rep. Mark Amodei and co-sponsored by Nevada Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto made its way through Congress. Millions more became available to TRPA in September 2024 when the bill became law. Spend any time on TRPA's website and you'll find all sorts of developer goodies including a development rights marketplace with developer incentives. In its development pipeline are new amenities for an older ski resort now owned by a commercial real estate development and investment firm. The agency is also a founding partner of a cleverly devised tourism initiative designed to funnel money to private interests under the auspices of environmental improvement. Government agencies with such scope, authority and funds at their disposal would typically answer to a full-time, comprehensive Office of Inspector General or comparable independent dedicated oversight division. This ensures agencies are in routine compliance and do not engage in ineffective, unethical or unlawful operations. Full-time oversight doesn't exist for TRPA. However, it does have more 'public-private' partnerships than you can count on two hands and highly paid executives who excel at PowerPoint presentations. While the agency works to combat aggressive aquatic invasive species entering Lake Tahoe, this effort becomes more difficult with new piers offered every two years. The Tahoe Science Advisory Council peer review of the latest TRPA Environmental Threshold Evaluation called out deficiencies in data and lack of accounting for increasing wildfire activity with, among other things, 'no mention of increasing wildfires on nitrogen emissions concentrations' (excess nitrogen in lakes is a major source of pollution), and inconsistencies in evaluation methods and metrics. The academics put it this way: 'The disconnect between some standards and management activities reinforces the need (identified by previous threshold evaluation reviews) to revisit the threshold standard system for air quality, noise, recreation, vegetation preservation, and water quality. Revisiting the threshold standards and the associated data sources is needed to ensure TRPA's monitoring programs can best inform implementation actions and monitor the impacts of those investments.' Meanwhile, the Tahoe Area Group Sierra Club noted Lake Tahoe has gained 'international acclaim for its high microplastic levels, nearshore water quality severely impaired with algae and cyanobacteria blooms, toxic materials in the lake's waters surpassing the EPA-approved limit by more than 2,500 times in the lake, and a trash problem that is now infamous around the world.' TRPA has been briefed on microplastics but has initiated no action. Compliance is not TRPA's strong suit. The Tahoe Event Center in Douglas County opened in 2023 without onsite parking, meant to reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT). Traffic count is one factor in determining VMTs, yet TRPA never followed up to see if the required vehicle counting monitors were installed (they weren't). And Tahoe infrastructure? According to the Tahoe City Public Utility District, much of Tahoe's water infrastructure was built in the 1960s and the aging pipes 'don't meet today's fire codes.' Yet that hasn't stopped TRPA from amending ordinances to allow for higher density development. Developers are already marketing their Tahoe luxury properties. Under the rubric of housing, TRPA rushed to loosen development standards for taller buildings, removed land coverage restrictions meant to filter and recharge rain and snowmelt that flow to the lake, and greenlit accessory dwelling units (ADUs). Tahoe county planners, in a moment of candor, allowed they expect ADUs will be turned into tourist accommodation units. Gotta keep the tourists happy. But impacts to the Lake? 'With all the new projected development, all of the science in the world won't save Lake Tahoe.' That was one of many serious public comments offered by a member of the Tahoe Environmental Research Council advisory board in the most recent TRPA governing board meeting. Lake Tahoe needs a truly science-based environmental enforcement and compliance agency. The Tahoe basin also needs a realistic update of the Tahoe basin's carrying capacity. It's time to amend TRPA codes to include specific modern-day thresholds such as wildfire evacuation, tourism/human capacity and traffic. Shouldn't there be an accurate determination of how much more development and human impact Tahoe can safely accommodate? Asking the same agency to both approve and police large new developments makes no sense. It cannot be both 'judge and jury' and expect that the public and environment's interests will be best served. What was the response to the investigative reporting on how far TRPA had strayed from its watchdog focus? TRPA doubled down on how much it values development and tourism. One public servant, TRPA's governing board member and Washoe County Commissioner Alexis Hill, dismissed the report outright as 'misinformation' and diminished the award-winning media outlet as 'quote unquote journalism.' Despite TRPA and its partners' spin, the public doggedly continue to express valid concerns to TRPA's governing board and Nevada's legislators. To share your thoughts on TRPA weigh in on the Nevada Senate committee website where it says 'submit opinion.' Lake Tahoe needs you.
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Yahoo
The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency updates Watercraft Inspection Program after discovery of aquatic invasive species
( — An update to the Lake Tahoe Watercraft Inspection Program was approved to protect the lake after invasive golden mussels were discovered just a few hours away from the Tahoe Basin, according to the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. Video Above: Who Determines When A Species Is Invasive TRPA said the governing board approved the update after the invasive species was found for the first time in North America last October in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta of the state. The Lake Tahoe inspection program has kept golden mussels out of Lake Tahoe since beginning in 2008, as they can encrust boats, piers, rocks, and pipes, according to TRPA. TRPA along with the Tahoe Resource Conservation District enacted mandatory decontaminations for visiting motorized watercrafts going into lake Tahoe. Motorized boaters traveling into Lake Tahoe are required to have a watercraft decontamination followed by a mandatory inspection. 'Boaters and paddlers have a key role in protecting the waters they enjoy,' said Dennis Zabaglo, aquatic invasive species program manager for TRPA. 'Golden mussels are a greater threat to Tahoe than other aquatic invasive species. We appreciate the support of boaters and will continue working to keep the lake safe and accessible to all.' Tahoe National Forest seeks public feedback on multiple projects TPRA said golden mussels have been detected through connected water systems as far as Bakersfield, since being discovered in Stockton. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
