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LAKE TAHOE — Funding a new way of traveling the 193 square miles of Lake Tahoe's waters has become another casualty of California's budget crisis.
The Blue Warrior Water Taxi, a project spearheaded by the Tahoe Diver's Conservancy and by the Alpen Group, was set to make waves this summer. However the donated 36-foot Uniflight boat ready to run from different marinas across the lake is not docked at Obexers Boat Company in Homewood, Calif.
The program needed about $20,000 in funding for fuel and insurance, which was secured from the California State Park system and was recently cut, said Capt. Mechele Duhamel.
The boat will remain there until some funding can be found, he said.
“We were trying to come in and do a pilot project,” Duhamel said. “Right now it's hit a brick wall.”
Duhamel was in talks with Truckee North Tahoe Transportation Management Association and the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency about the water-taxi program.
The Blue Warrior Water Taxi, a project spearheaded by the Tahoe Diver's Conservancy and by the Alpen Group, was set to make waves this summer. However the donated 36-foot Uniflight boat ready to run from different marinas across the lake is not docked at Obexers Boat Company in Homewood, Calif.
The program needed about $20,000 in funding for fuel and insurance, which was secured from the California State Park system and was recently cut, said Capt. Mechele Duhamel.
The boat will remain there until some funding can be found, he said.
“We were trying to come in and do a pilot project,” Duhamel said. “Right now it's hit a brick wall.”
Duhamel was in talks with Truckee North Tahoe Transportation Management Association and the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency about the water-taxi program.
Another way?
Even though the funding fell through for the Blue Warrior, plans for a lake-wide ferry are still in the works at the Tahoe Transportation District.In 2005 Congress set aside $8 million for a Tahoe ferry service. Since, TTD has been working with the Federal Transit Administration to secure the funds and put the boat in motion.
Now TTD is compiling an alternative analysis to present to FTA that would show different means of transportation across Tahoe.
That analysis could be done by April 2010, said TTD Project Manager Alfred Knotts, which would begin the process for an environmental document and preliminary engineering of the program that could be ready by April 2011.
“It's not just as simple as using the existing marinas and putting a boat there,” Knotts said. “We have to look at infrastructure needs as well.”
In 2005 the ferry program was envisioned as two high-speed ferry boats to carry visitors and residents across the 21-mile-long lake on the California-Nevada border. Tentative plans called for high-speed, low-wake ferries that could each haul up to 200 people. The ferries would be propelled by low-emission engines that run on natural gas or other alternative fuel, as well as solar-generated electricity.
A 2007 study identified Ski Run Marina and Tahoe City Marina as the most practical way to shuttle passengers across Lake Tahoe's waters.
The initial cost of such a shuttle would be about $14 million, to be followed by $500,000 in annual operating costs, according to TRPA data from 2007.
