Tahoe funding tacked on to appropriations legistlation

U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., and U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., secured millions of dollars for Lake Tahoe in both House and Senate versions of the Interior Appropriations bill within the last week.

More than $500 million is designated for environmental projects within Nevada in the House version of the bill.

About $3.5 million of that money is slated for erosion control and ecosystem management projects in the basin.

Almost $12 million is slated for Nevada in the Senate version of the bill with $10.5 million of that money earmarked for Tahoe.

In the Senate's bill, $4 million will go to the bankroll to buy environmentally sensitive lands with in the basin. An additional $2.75 million is expected to pay for thinning efforts to reduce fire fuels, and about $3 million will bankroll state grants for erosion control and water quality improvements along 600 miles of basin roadways.

Essentially, the money bankrolls projects included in Tahoe's Environmental Improvement Program - the $908 million cost outline to save Lake Tahoe that came out of the Presidential Forum in 1997.

"It's a step in the right direction," Reid said in phone interview Wednesday.

The money outlined in both versions of the bill will go to a number of federal agencies like the U.S. Department of Transportation, the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Reclamation in the next fiscal year, Reid added.

He said, that as a senior member of the appropriations committee he's able to do more for Nevada than he was before.

Money from the appropriations bill comes on top of the $30 million that's supposed to go to the U.S. Forest Service for projects outlined in the EIP.

Chris Knopp, natural resources staff director for the USFS Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit, said it's hard to determine what money is coming for specific projects.

"There are a lot of fingers in this pie," he said. "There are lots of projects."

Knopp added that of the $30 million that supposed to come to the USFS annually, $20 million of that goes to the forest service and $10 million goes to local governments for grants.

Dozens of requests have come into his office from federal officials asking "what would you do if?" he said.

Knopp said there are three basic issues facing the basin - forest health, water quality and transportation.

Any federal money sent Tahoe's way would bankroll projects in those areas.

"It's taken a long time to get to this stage," he said. "The next part is getting money for the ecosystem."