South Lake mayor rips White House

"D" for disappointment - that was the grade some Lake Tahoe officials gave the Clinton administration for following up on commitments made at the 1997 Lake Tahoe Presidential Forum, South Lake Tahoe Mayor Tom Davis said.

"The administration hasn't done a darn thing in the three years since the presidential visit," Davis said. "It's been all flash and no cash - this is the one issue the basin has been united on."

Davis, and other area governmental officials, environmentalists and scientists, met with U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer Saturday in a meeting held in Tahoe City about restoration efforts at the lake since the presidential forum.

The promise from the federal government to bring $30 million per year for the next 10 years to help save Lake Tahoe's declining clarity has yet to be realized, Davis said. Meanwhile, state and local entities have already contributed to the effort.

The League to Save Lake Tahoe agreed with Davis, saying the federal government's commitment has been weak.

"We are awaiting word on the final appropriations package for fiscal year 2001, and for the administration's proposal for 2002," Rochelle Nason, the League's executive director said.

Lake Tahoe's famed clarity is declining at the rate of more than 1 foot each year. Urban development, which prevents water from filtering through the groundwater system, is largely to blame for the fading clarity.

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, the basin's bistate planning authority, has developed an Environmental Improvement Plan that would bring in more than $900 million dollars to fund environmental improvements within the basin. The improvements must be made by 2007 in order for the agency to meet its environmental thresholds for water quality, soil conservation, air quality, vegetation, wildlife, fisheries, recreation and scenery. A draft of the plan was reviewed at the 1997 visit and received final approval in 1998.

The funding commitments divvied up in the plan call for the federal government to bring in $300 million, California and Nevada and local governments to bring in the rest. Once the money is appropriated, the challenge will be implementing the projects at the regional level.

Nason said the lake can't wait much longer for the process to begin.

"The rate of environmental deterioration has remained level and we only have a few years to turn this around," Nason said. "It's been disappointing to date but we're still hopeful that with the help of our senators and congressmen it can still be turned around."

Boxer offered to work with Tahoe's community members in the future to facilitate meetings with Washington decision makers.

Boxer is supporting the Conservation and Reinvestment Act, a bill currently in Congress. The bill would benefit water conservation, wildlife conservation and restoration, urban park and recreation and endangered species recovery.