The clearness of Lake Tahoe’s deep, blue waters tells a story. The lake’s incredible clarity, which today averages 60 to 70 feet deep, is among Lake Tahoe’s most famous features. Despite having been on the ropes at times over the past 100 years, that clarity endures. The most recent report on Lake Tahoe’s clarity from the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center shows that the visibility of the lake’s water averaged 62 feet last year. By any standard, being able to see a 10-inch white disk descend six stories into a body of water is amazing. But as the report states, clarity could be better, could be worse and must be better understood.
–Written by Julie Regan, executive director of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, and Jason Vasques, executive director of the California Tahoe Conservancy.