Lake Tahoe Pollutant Load Reduction Model
The California Regional Water Quality Control Board (Water Board) has designated Lake Tahoe as an Outstanding National Resource Water under the US Federal Clean Water Act. Lake Tahoe has been losing its famed clarity since the late 1960s, and the Water Board and Nevada Division of Environmental Protection jointly created a phased Lake Tahoe total maximum daily load (TMDL) to address pollutants of concern. As part of the Phase II TMDL, public and private proponents of redevelopment projects needed to design strategies to control loads of nutrients and fine particulates from urbanized regions of the Tahoe Basin. They also needed to evaluate the performance of these strategies. The tool developed to meet this need is the Pollutant Load Reduction Model (PLRM). The first version was released in 2009, and the second version was released in 2015.
