Groundwater report from January 11, 2024, about the old Lakeside Inn property (where there was PCE contamination in the past). The report was prepared by a company called UES for Barton Health (who owns the land now) and the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection (NDEP).

In the report, UES says the chemical levels (PCE) are now low and they want to stop testing the groundwater. They plan to ask NDEP to officially close the case and end the monitoring program.

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Here is a clip from the 4/7/22 Douglas County Board of Commissioners Meeting where the Barton CEO Clint Purvance “addresses” the chemical issues on the site. Jump to the 48:39 minute mark.

https://douglascountynv.granicus.com/player/clip/144?view_id=1&meta_id=5405&redirect=true

 

Many people spend a lot of time around Burke Creek and Nevada Beach, swimming and playing. Since our drinking water comes from the lake, I have a few concerns and questions:

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1. Is the monitoring really ending?
If so, how is that being allowed—especially since California agencies are still watching PCE contamination very closely just across the state line in the same groundwater area?

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2. What happened to Monitoring Well MW-1?
This well was underwater in the summer and then destroyed during construction in September 2023, so no testing happened after that. But before it was removed, this well showed high levels of PCE 7 out of 9 times it was tested—much more than the other two wells. Shouldn’t it have been replaced instead of just deleted from the data? It feels like ending monitoring based only on the wells showing the lowest contamination is misleading.

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3. Is Lake Tahoe at risk?
Lake Tahoe is supposed to have the highest protection under federal law, and no pollution is supposed to be added. But the report says they couldn’t figure out how water flows underground during the last two testing periods because they only had two wells left. That seems like a problem.

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4. What about the TRPA’s groundwater quality standards?
How does this site’s contamination affect the TRPA’s groundwater quality goals? That’s not clear in the report.

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5. Has the full PCE plume ever been mapped out?
Have they ever really figured out how far the contamination goes—how deep and how wide?

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6. Did the big winter of 2022–2023 have an effect?
All that snow and the rise in groundwater levels might have moved the contamination. Do they have enough data to understand how it changes in wet vs dry years?

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7. Why does the appendix have the wrong project name?

Appendix A lists a completely different project (Thomas Creek), not this one. That seems sloppy.

Water for Stateline homes, businesses, the 4-H Camp, and the Edgewood Golf Course all comes from lake or creek intakes nearby. Please make sure we’re not at risk from the old Lakeside Inn contamination. We need to know the water we’re drinking and swimming in is safe.