Boating fees rise after 'good year' for stopping invasive species

LAKE TAHOE - Boaters will need to open their wallets a little bit wider before launching at Lake Tahoe this summer. The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency's Governing Board approved fee increases for mandatory aquatic invasive species inspections Wednesday.

The average boater will pay an additional $10 or $11 for a year of boating on Lake Tahoe under the new rate structure, said Dennis Zabaglo, TRPA's watercraft program manager.

"Any increase can be perceived as a negative, but we feel it's minimal," Zabaglo told the board Wednesday.

The fee for a sticker allowing vessels to only launch at Lake Tahoe for a year will stay the same at $30.

The fees will be in effect for 2012. They will be reviewed at the end of the year for the 2013 season. Boaters with a 2011 sticker will be able to launch at Lake Tahoe until April 30.

During the 2011 boating season, inspectors checked 7,600 vessels and performed 4,800 decontaminations. The rate of decontaminations - 63 percent - is a "logistical challenge and something we would like to change," said Ted Thayer, TRPA's invasive species program coordinator.

Wednesday's rate changes include a fee for decontaminating a boat. Thayer hopes the additional charge will encourage boaters to "clean, drain and dry" boats before coming to Lake Tahoe and decrease the number of decontaminations in 2012.

The new fee structure was proposed by TRPA staff in anticipation of Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act funding going away. The new fees will cover 47 percent the inspection program's cost, up from 29 percent under the previous fee structure.

Program administrators will be looking at long-term funding sources for the program in an upcoming financial plan as well as how to make the program more efficient.

TRPA hopes to find sources of funding for the program other than inspection fees, Zabaglo said. The average sticker would cost more than $100 if the program was funded exclusively by the fees, Zabaglo added.