Editorial: Efforts need to continue to preserve Lake Tahoe
Publisher’s note: This editorial is from the Aug. 25, 2013, Sacramento Bee.
Nevada and California have stepped back from the brink of breaking up the two-state compact to protect Lake Tahoe, the largest alpine lake in the world once famed for its crystal clarity.
Nevada’s threat two years ago to withdraw from the compact has receded with a new agreement between California Gov. Jerry Brown and Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval. Whether changes agreed to by the two governors – already approved by the Nevada Legislature and now working their way through California’s – will reverse deterioration in the lake and promote orderly development remains to be seen.
Monitoring will be critical. So will continued funding – for stormwater, erosion-control, and road improvement projects and other measures. The federal Lake Tahoe Restoration Act of 2000, which expired in 2010, provided significant funds for this national resource, where 78 percent of the lands in the Tahoe basin belong to the American people – and drew in significant state and local funding, including private funds.
Absent the populace comprehending changes they will need to make in their own behavior (to overcome what’s known as the ‘normalcy bias), the old saw of the government “throwing money at problems” will prevail – the only true reason for monitoring: to find out what hasn’t changed, or preferably, what has changed well enough to concentrate work elsewhere, as financial resources dwindle, as they most certainly are now. . .
Culturally, we still don’t look at sources well enough; it is only symptoms we treat. . .