Tahoe Marinas Find Lower Lake Level a Drain on Business

J. J. Maple, 18, unreeled 50 feet of hose as he walked along a Lake Tahoe dock from the fuel pump at the land end of the pier to a boat waiting to be filled with gas.

Under normal conditions, the boat would have pulled up next to the pump. But conditions are far from normal these days at Lake Tahoe. The boat was as close as it could get to the pump due to shallow water.

After two winters of low rainfall, Lake Tahoe is 4 1/2 feet lower than normal. Beaches are bigger than usual, the lake shore is dotted with peninsulas that used to be islands, and some lakeside businesses are being forced to make adjustments.

Some marinas have been forced to close. Others are being dredged and some, like the Zephyr Cove Marina, have adopted creative measures such as installing a 50-foot-long gasoline hose to “stay afloat.”

After Maple filled the boat’s fuel tank, Chris Burke, 37, manager of the Zephyr Cove Marina, checked the pump meter and shouted across: “That’s seven gallons for a total of $10.64.” Then he muttered in frustration: “What a way to run a marine fuel station.”

Burke has not been able to launch a boat from the marina in months, since the end of the launching ramp is 30 feet from the water’s edge.

Although his boat rental business is as good as ever, his 28 vessels are moored to buoys much farther out than usual. Burke is also careful to warn each renter not to get too close to shore, since the shallow water means that rocks are perilously close to the surface.

At Sierra Boat Co. in Tahoe Vista on California’s north shore, the situation is little better. The 104 boats in the slips are all 4 1/2 feet below the pier walkways and boaters have to climb down ladders to get to the boats.

“We’re survivors. We’ve been through this before. We’re going to be OK,” insisted Dick Clarke, 67, manager of the marina and a Lake Tahoe resident since 1927.

“There’s a helluva lot of water out there, it’s just that the edges are lower,” he said.

The 250-boat Homewood Marina had to be dredged in order to operate this summer.

“The dredging cost us in the neighborhood of $25,000. We moved 400 yards of material into the landing bay. The marina was 1 to 2 feet deep. Now it’s back up to 5 to 6 feet deep,” said manager Bill Plumbridge, 56.

But it’s business as usual for the lake’s two paddle wheelers, the 340-passenger M. S. Dixie and the 500-passenger Tahoe Queen, and bathers have no complaints about the lower water along the shoreline. Some beaches are twice their normal size.

May Boost Tourism

Tahoe tourism authorities point to the extra large beaches as one benefit of the lower lake and profess to see few major problems. In fact, Bev Bedard, executive director of the Greater North Lake Tahoe Chamber of Commerce, argues that tourism may actually be boosted by the drought. As smaller lakes in California dry up, more tourists may choose to visit Tahoe, she said.

But if the drought continues another year, Nevada officials said, it may be necessary to pump water out of the lake to satisfy the Reno area’s water needs.

Reno receives 85% of its domestic water from the 105-mile-long Truckee River, which runs from Lake Tahoe to Pyramid Lake, Nev. Farmers in the Fallon, Nev., area also depend heavily on the Truckee River and Lake Tahoe for irrigation water.

“When the lake goes below its rim, the Truckee stops flowing,” explained John Kramer, attorney for the California Department of Water Resources. “That happened in 1924, 1929, 1930 and in 1934, the last time water was pumped out of the lake into the river.

“In 1961 and 1977, California and Nevada officials held discussions about the possibility of pumping water from Lake Tahoe into the Truckee but nothing happened because the drought ended the following winters.

Sees Legal Problems

“You can imagine the kinds of legal problems that would be involved to pump water out of Lake Tahoe,” said John James, Nevada state climatologist and chairman of the Nevada Governor’s Drought Committee.

“The pumping operation would affect docks and piers along the shoreline and other recreational activity. The people living on the lake would oppose it. It would be an extremely complicated problem that would take the approval of both states, various irrigation districts, Indians, cities, etc.”

James said he believes that the decision to pump will be put off so long that eventually the drought will end and the problem will no longer exist.