Miller finds jet skis contaminate Tahoe waters
By John Trent, Outpost contributor
|
Environmental chemist mixes science, politics Miller helps revise mining act UNR buys mansion |
"We had two areas that were marinas, where there was not only large boats, but there was jet skis, there was a gasoline station," Miller says. "And there was one site that we expected that would be relatively clean because it received no jet ski use at Tahoe Meadows."
Miller and his students began taking water samples in early June.
"And right away we started seeing stuff," he says. "In fact, every sample we've taken in Lake Tahoe, we've seen at least one of the gasoline constituents."
To verify the impact of heavy use of Jet Skis on Lake Tahoe, more samples were taken over the Fourth of July weekend.
"The numbers really climbed up immediately after the Fourth," Miller says. "They stayed relatively high throughout the summer. It got very interesting. This was actually the first study of its size that ever looked at water in a semi-systematic way."
Miller's preliminary findings, released on Aug. 29, had far-reaching political and financial impacts not only regionally, but nationally. Miller's chief finding was that concentrations of methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE), a gasoline constituent and fuel additive found in other California lakes frequented by Jet Skis and motorboats, was now present in Lake Tahoe.
Since the release of the study, a bill in the California Legislature for a $500,000 study of MTBE was amended to include the pollutant's impact on Lake Tahoe. The bill won approval by Gov. Pete Wilson. In addition, less than a month after Miller's findings were released, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency reiterated its ban on two-stroke engines on Jet Skis at Lake Tahoe as of June 1999. The TRPA declined to delay the ban for an additional year. And, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada, inserted language in a House-Senate Appropriations bill directing the EPA to study the effects of gasoline in the lake.
"This was the year of the Clinton-Gore visit," Miller says. "It was fortuitous in that respect."
Not all marina owners have thought Miller's study is so fortuitous. Tahoe Keys Marina owner Ed Young says Jet Skis run much more efficiently and cleaner than what Miller's data suggests.
"You ought to see them run," Young says of some of the newer Jet Ski models he's brought to Tahoe Keys Marina, which the personal watercraft industry says can cut hyrdocarbon emissions by 80 percent and improve fuel efficiency by 35 percent. "They idle clean. There's no smoke."
Adds Reno Jet Ski owner Tony Hernandez: "The EPA says our Jet Skis dump 25 percent of our fuel; the newer models only dump 7 percent - I'd say that's a good improvement."
Miller doesn't disagree that newer Jet Skis do run cleaner.
"But yes, there is a lot of gasoline in Lake Tahoe," he says. "It's still low level. It's not a health concern, except in drinking water in some cases. But certainly swimming isn't a problem. But is an issue because Tahoe is a deep lake, and that could tend to increase concentrations in the deeper parts as it turns over.
"It may not be issues of toxicity we're concerned about, but Lake Tahoe is a special standard because it is a place of unusual clarity, of unusual quality. I think that everyone that goes to Lake Tahoe says, 'Yes, that's a place we want to hold to a higher standard than anywhere else because of the special values that exist at the lake.'"
Miller's study continues for two more years, with final recommendations due in 1999.
Posted Jan. 29, 1998
Copyright 1998 Nevada Oupost
|
Nevada Outpost is produced by
students at the |
|
