News briefs: Chamber meeting; water issues to be discussed

South Tahoe Chamber to meet

The South Tahoe Chamber of Commerce will meet at 6:30 p.m. Monday at the Cantina Bar & Grill, 765 Emerald Bay Road. The public is welcome.

Upper Truckee River group to meet

The Upper Truckee River Watershed Stewardship Group, a project of the League to Save Lake Tahoe, will host a presentation on the Lake Tahoe Total Maximum Daily Load from 6 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at the South Lake Tahoe Public Library.

Doug Smith, senior engineering geologist with Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board, will lead a presentation on the Lake Tahoe Total Maximum Daily Load research, water-quality studies that will guide many of the environmental decisions made in the Tahoe Basin for decades to come.

The presentation will address questions such as: What pollutants are entering Lake Tahoe and decreasing clarity; what are the sources of these pollutants; and how can we reduce the amount of pollutants entering the lake?

Water supplies in the West to be discussed

The UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center will host a presentation on water supplies in the West from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Jan. 17 at the Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences in Incline Village.

Climate change, population growth and demands to allocate water for the environment increase the likelihood that water in the West will be managed by crisis in the future. Anticipating these crises - and developing ways to avoid or respond to them - can reduce social and environmental costs.

Join UC Davis' own "Dr. Doom" on a look forward to future water crises in the West. From shrinking Sierra snowpacks to regional water transfers to extreme floods, Dr. Jeffrey Mount will examine an array of current and future water resource conflicts, including what to do about them and why, in most cases, we may choose to do nothing at all.

The center for Environmental Sciences is located at 291 Country Club Drive in Incline Village. A $5 donation is requested, and a no-host bar is available.