Green groups: Lake threatened

Environmental groups say Senate Bill 229, passed by the just-ended Nevada Legislature, is a threat to Lake Tahoe. The bill canceled a threatened pullout of Nevada from the bi-state Tahoe Regional Planning Agency but also imposes conditions on California that critics say would torpedo environmental protections for the lake.

“The new law still presents California the choice of either ending the Compact or ‘saving' a much weakened version that places development on a par with environmental protection of the Lake,” said Sierra Club official David von Seggern.

Two chapters of the Sierra Club, Friends of the West Shore and Earthjustice are critical of the new legislation.

The new Nevada law, which was approved by the governor, threatens to switch back to a pullout if California fails to embrace a new regional plan for Lake Tahoe and unless the bistate compact that created TRPA is amended to amending the Compact to require consideration of economic factors in land-use planning.