TMDL is an $11 million acronym

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE — TMDL, which stands for Total Maximum Daily Load, is one expensive acronym. It refers to limiting the amount of sediment going into Lake Tahoe. Enforced by the Lahontan Water Quality Control Board, it is estimated to cost El Dorado County $11 million, according to Supervisor Jack Sweeney.

"I'm thinking we're wishing for something and I don't know if it's achievable or affordable," Sweeney said. "We don't have an unlimited checkbook that you think we do.

"We don't have the ability to focus on solely adding another 5 feet on the Secchi Dish (which measures the depth of clarity of Lake Tahoe)," Sweeney said.

"You'll break El Dorado County, you'll break Placer County, you'll break South Lake Tahoe," Sweeney told Harold  Singer, executive director of the Lahontan regional water board.

"My point is this is not going to work, Harold. We saw what happened in the Angora Fire. I'm begging you," Sweeney said.

Singer, in his talk with the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors meeting in the South Lake Tahoe City Council chambers at the airport Oct. 11, indicated some flexibility.

"The (Lahontan) board does have some discretion in the NPDES permit, allowing alternative assessment, changing and adjusting the baseline," Singer said.

The National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit comes from the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Lahontan is the local agency charged with enforcing the NPDES permit as part of the storm water management program. Singer admitted that storm water management programs under the NPDES permit "are somewhat standard" and the EPA has a "template."

"Major loads are coming into Lake Tahoe from the urban area," Singer said. "It's a little more difficult (estimating) the forested area. We work with the Forest Service to minimize loads."

"When we talk about Total Maximum Daily Load ... I have a big issue with the federal program having one-size-fits-all. Why not focus on smaller programs?" asked Supervisor Norma Santiago.

"The (Lahontan) board is aware of financial problems. It's a balancing of programs we have available and best practices," Singer said.

"There seems to be a disconnect between the local agency, Lahontan versus the EPA," Santiago said.

Singer said the U.S. EPA storm water program is aimed at eliminating metals flowing into the river system. "We realize Tahoe is not similar. Eliminating metals may not affect clarity (of the lake)," Singer said.

"Mostly we'll be dealing with private property, construction," Singer said.

"If we did not include these things the EPA would object and issue the permit themselves," Singer said.

"The bulk of the land is under the U.S.Forest Service. It's astonishing to me you're not trying to figure out what is natural and what is not natural," said Supervisor Ray Nutting. "We have to do something about fuel loads to prevent devastating crown fires.

"I've been on a mountainside and seen 1,000 gopher holes," Nutting added.

Singer ignored the sedimentation possibilities of gopher holes and said, "We do have a baseline from 2003 and from that baseline we study (Forest Service actions)."

Sweeney noted his family "started coming to Tahoe in 1870. I've spent a lot of time here. A lot of smaller lakes are now meadows. Mother Nature has a profound effect on the lake. One time it was 500 feet lower than it is now."

"When do you think the Forst Service gets involved in this process?" asked Supervisor Ron Briggs.

"We do regulate the Forest Service. I'll take Supervisor Sweeney's challenge to my board, looking at the Forest Service," Singer said. "There is an effort by the State Water Quality Control Board to regulate the Forest Service statewide. TMDL is folded into that. Meantime we will monitor individual projects."

Asked about enforcement by Briggs, Singer said, "Enforcement is with the regional board. My recommendation is to look at what you have done with what you have available. Make efforts to seek grants, Proposition 84 grants. We will help you be more competitive.

"Seventy-five percent of the load is from the urban area. We've increased the runoff and the velocity," Singer said.

"Does you board understand there are limited resources?" asked Supervisor John Knight.

"I'm sure they do. One member is an Alpine County supervisor," Singer said.

Singer was followed by Steve Kooyman of the El Dorado County Department of Transportation. Kooyman's title just about fills all the space on a business card: acting deputy director of engineering, transportation planning and land development — "and the Rubicon."

Kooyman and others in his department have been meeting with the Lahontan staff and Singer.

"There have been many meetings, many comments. We've worked as partners," Kooyman said.

Still he warned that "right now this is still a dynamic baseline load analysis. We used a model three jurisdictions were comfortable with. Then we realized there are central limitations to the model and the parameters."

The other big issue is defining "hydrological connectivity," Kooyman said. "The distance water travels from a pipe to the stream – is it 100 feet, 500 feet?" Kooyman wondered.

"I believe Lahontan and us are on the same page. The EPA comments basically brought us back and put on conditions that are onerous. It's EPA bureaucracy," Kooyman said. "It's beyond me why regulations are going so far and restraining us and putting on more paperwork that is not putting anything on the ground."

Kooyman noted that El Dorado County has spent $17 million in the last 15 years on erosion control in the Tahoe Basin. Most of that has been grant funded. It has resulted in 45 catchment basins. The county gets 14 TMDL credits for each catchment. One credit is the equivalent of a 200-pound box of sediment trapped in the catchment. The total catchments equal 630 credits and those equal 126,000 pounds of sediment.

Kooyman said the total baseline is 439,000 pounds. That amount must be reduced 10 percent by 2016, another 11 percent by 2021 and must total up to 34 percent between 2016 and 2026.

Placer County's baseline is 516,000 pounds of sediment and the city of South Lake Tahoe's is 549,000.

Those figures can be reduced 30 percent by defining "hydrologic connectivity," Kooyman said.

"I think we need to see this in writing," Sweeney said.

"Catchments need maintenance," said Knight.

"You're correct," Kooyman said.

"Do we get credit for the work we've done since 2004?" Santiago asked.

"Yes," Kooyman said.

Kooyman said his staff has met with Placer County, South Lake Tahoe and Caltrans.

"This series of letters is phenomenal," Sweeney said about correspondence with the agencies with which Kooyman has had meetings. "I've read all these papers and believe them to be technically correct. We've got to get agreement on the technical stuff."

Sweeney worried that the rigidity of the EPA's "template" would eventually land El Dorado County in court and getting agreement by local agencies on baseline issues and other matters would bolster the county's case.

"Mr. Singer is caught between the local and EPA template," Sweeney said. "I think we need to see some working papers, not in civil engineering language but in board language. We have to speak with one voice. I think it's important to get Placer County, South Lake Tahoe and Caltrans. I think we need a plan to get there."

E-mail Michael Raffety at mraffety@mtdemocrat.net or call 530-344-5067.

Michael Raffety

Michael Raffety has been editor of the Mountain Democrat since 1989 and was managing editor beginning in 1986. He was city editor prior to that, having started here in 1979. He was the first person at the Mountain Democrat to be given the title of city editor. He also was an adjunct professor at the El Dorado Center from 1980-2003.

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