Water board to discuss Tahoe fire threat

How the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board has reacted to concerns after the Angora fire will be discussed during a public meeting this week. It starts Tuesday afternoon in the board room at Lake Tahoe Community College.

One item on the two-day agenda is discussion of measures the agency has taken in response to recommendations by the California-Nevada Tahoe Basin Fire Commission.

In May, the commission made 90 recommendations on how the threat of catastrophic wildfire could be reduced in the Lake Tahoe Basin.

The water board's polices were criticized after the Angora fire for preventing the removal of excessive forest fuel loading in the Lake Tahoe Basin.

“The water board will review a proposed status report describing actions taken and proposed to be taken by the water board to facilitate fuel reduction efforts in the Lake Tahoe Basin and consider forwarding the list of actions to the secretaries for the California Resources Agency and California Environmental Protection Agency,” according to the meeting’s agenda.

The meeting is planned for 4 p.m. Tuesday, and the item regarding the fire commission's recommendations is likely to be heard at about 7 p.m., after the dinner break, according to the agenda.

The meeting then resumes at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.