By Joanne S. Marchetta, TRPA
A return to pre-pandemic normalcy is still a few steps from our reach, but as the vaccine continues to roll out and contagion numbers improve, many of us are looking forward to taking our lives off hold and possibly having a safe summer. Warmer temperatures enliven more than our spirits, however. Aquatic invasive weeds in Lake Tahoe do most of their malignant growth in warmer weather, and this summer will also mark a surge in basin-wide work to knock them back.
The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) and many partners are implementing the multi-agency Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) action agenda that prioritizes near and long-term control measures to halt the damage being done to Lake Tahoe by invasive plants, warm-water fish, and amphibians. The agenda calls for swift, unprecedented action to achieve a 90 percent or greater reduction in aquatic invasive plants, with a specific focus on the weed-choked lagoons of the Tahoe
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif.
A crew for a private contractor hired by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency removed an abandoned boat from Lake Tahoe Tuesday that sank off the lake’s south shore in January and was believed to be leaking oil.
The 40-foot (12 meters) recreational vessel was first reported Jan. 15 to have sunk in about 15 feet (4.5 meters) of water about 300 yards (274 meters) offshore from Pope Beach in South Lake Tahoe, the EPA said.
The agency planned to spend about $20,000 on the effort in conjunction with the El Dorado County Sheriff, the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Office of Spill Prevention and Response.
brozak@tahoedailytribune.com
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. A private contractor hired by a federal agency removed a partially sunken boat on Tuesday that may have been leaking fluid into Lake Tahoe.
High Sierra Marine personnel on Tuesday morning start the process of removing a partially sunken boat from Lake Tahoe’s South Shore.
Bill Rozak / Tahoe Daily Tribune
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency contracted High Sierra Marine out of Tahoe City to raise a vessel that was first reported sunk in mid-January about 300 yards off the shore of Pope Beach in South Lake Tahoe.
Repeated efforts by multiple agencies to identify and contact the owner of the vessel had been unsuccessful, EPA spokeswoman Margot Perez Sullivan said.
A boat sank off Pope Beach in January. Bill Rozak / Tahoe Daily Tribune
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. Getting a sunken boat out of Lake Tahoe sometimes isn’t so easy.
On Jan. 20, the Coast Guard Lake Tahoe station responded to a report of a sunken boat off Pope Beach.
Lt. Pantelis Vasilarakis, Coast Guard Sector San Francisco’s logistics department deputy, said when a boat sinks, determining if there is pollution or not is the first and most important step.
In this case, they were able to determine there was no pollution but nearly a month after the boat was reported, it’s still there.