How Does Shoreline Erosion Rank with Other Sources of Lake Pollution?
Over the years, scientists have struggled to determine the quantity of sediment and nutrients that enter Lake Tahoe from various sources. In the mid-1980s, rough estimates of the amount of sediment going into the lake suggested that, it was as if 10 dump trucks emptied a full load of soil into the lake each day. Current estimates are probably more precise, though perhaps less colorful. The Lake Tahoe Watershed Assessment, produced in 2000 by the USDA Forest Service, contains the results of many scientific studies in its 735 pages. In this assessment, researchers assigned approximate amounts of sediment and nutrients to five major types of pollution sources. These sources are atmospheric deposition, stream loading, direct runoff from urban areas, groundwater, and shore-zone erosion. The total amount of sediment entering the lake was not estimated, but the authors, John Reuter and Wally Miller, estimated that stream loading alone contributed 11,300 metric tons (MT) of sediment per year t
