Best Management Practices

To protect Lake Tahoe for future generations, TRPA requires all developed properties such as homes and businesses to install and maintain BMPs. Best Management Practices, also known as BMPs, capture and infiltrate stormwater and stabilize soil to prevent erosion.  The installation of BMP’s is to simulates pre-development conditions when precipitation would soak into the ground and be filtered by the soil, rather than running over impervious surfaces (like roofs and roads), collecting pollutants such as sediment and nutrients as it travels, and ultimately ending up in Lake Tahoe. Research proves that implementing BMPs on existing development is a critical step toward improving Lake Tahoe’s water quality and clarity. Some proven methods that prevent sediment and nutrients from entering our waters that that property owners can install to help slow or reverse the declining loss of lake clarity include:

• Paving dirt driveways

• Protecting the soil under drip lines of roofs by installing  drain rock

• Stabilizing or retaining steep slopes and loose soils

• Vegetating and mulching bare soil

Once a property meets TRPA’s BMP requirements, TRPA issues a BMP Certificate.

To find out if a property has a BMP Certificate, visit the Lake Tahoe Parcel Tracker.

For an easy to read article on BMPS please click here

When a Tahoe property transfers through a real-estate transaction, TRPA requires disclosure of the property’s BMP status from the seller to the buyer and submittal of

TRPA’s real estate disclosure form within 30 days of sale

For information visit www.tahoebmp.org or call the BMP hotline at (775) 589-5202.