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Lake Tahoe Water Level is Losing 1.5 Inches a Week

Severe drought causes some boat docks to be hundreds of feet from water line and rotting algae to make lake to smell like sewage
By - posted 10/18/2021 No Comment

This week Lake Tahoe’s water level dipped below it’ “natural rim” of 6,223 feet, a level so low that water is no longer flowing into the Truckee River and leaving some boat docks and ramps now hundreds of feet from the water line.

This means that salmon are unlikely to spawn this year. According to the SF Gate “full” water elevation is considered to be 6,229 feet. An although a 6-foot drop off of water across its surface many not seem like much, because the size of the lake that means that the lake has lost 191 square miles of water.

The lake is currently depleting at 1.5 inches a week due to evaporation. Every week, enough water is evaporating to meet the daily needs of 48 million people.

And then there’s the smell. With the algae that’s been left behind rotting on the beach, the lake now has the scent of sewage. This type of drought isn’t unprecedented (the water level dipped to similar levels from 2014-2017) and and experts say it’s not a crisis yet.  And although a little bit of snow came last week and rain is expected, Tahoe needs a record-breaking 800 inches of snow to fill back up.  Read the full story at SF Gate

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