earth affords." The lake is over a mile high and is nestled amongst the Sierra Nevada, snowcapped, mountain range. Lake Tahoe is uniquely divided between two states, Nevada and California, which presents difficulties in long-term studies, developmental controls, and protection goals.(See figure one) The Tahoe Basin has many political arms wrapped around it , often with overlapping jurisdiction, including the Federal Government, two States, five Counties, and a City. One example of this problem is the fact that:
             "Lake Tahoe is designated as an Outstanding National Resource Water (ONRW) under U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Water Quality Standards Program and the Clean Water Act. With this designation, Lake Tahoe is provided the highest level of protection under the antidegradation policy and no further degradation should be permitted. The state of California recognizes this designation, while Nevada does not."(1:1)
             The one fact that everyone seems to agree on is Lake Tahoe needs its purity protected and preserved.
             Contrary to the belief that the lake was formed by a volcanic crater collapse; the lake actually, was formed by the rise and fall of the landscape due to faulting. The Sierra Nevada is a batholith, "an enormous, complex masses of solidified magma, usually granite .... composed of many individual plutons that push aside some of the rocks of the crust while melting and digesting others" (2:403). This pushing aside and uplifting formed a "deep graben fault basin" (3:42).
             The lake has a surface area of 193 square miles (122,200 acres); a depth of 1,645 feet at maximum and 989 feet at average; a surface temperature of 68°F maximum and 41°F minimum; a capacity of 122,160,280 acre-feet of water; a length of 22 miles and width of 12 miles; a surface elevation of 6,229 feet above sea level; and a shoreline of 71 miles, divided into 42 miles in California and 29 miles in Nevada. Lake Tahoe's great depth ma...