In two major new developments designed to reverse Lake Tahoe's degradation, UC Davis environmental researchers were spotlighted for taking the lead to work cooperatively with other agencies and research institutions in the race against time to rescue the lake. More than 30 UC Davis scientists contributed to a 1,200-page Lake Tahoe Watershed Assessment, a historic, multi-agency report released to the public last week in Kings Beach. The U.S. Forest Service document outlines decades of research at the lake and suggests cross-disciplinary ap-proaches for future work in the basin. Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef also signed a new pact with the presidents of the University of Nevada, Reno, and the University of Nevada's Desert Research Institute, to integrate laboratory and research facilities that are planned for expansion on both the west and east sides of the lake. The landmark facilities-sharing agreement is aimed at avoiding duplication and saving costs in conducting Lake Tahoe research. "The watershed assessment lays out the problems of Lake Tahoe in ways it has never been done before," Vanderhoef said. "When you have something as complex as Tahoe, it is important to have cooperation and collaboration. This work is being done by people dedicated to the proposition that Lake Tahoe doesn't have to continue its decline." Both moves come as Congress considers a $900 million Tahoe Restoration Act, which would fund remedies for Tahoe's declining clarity. Charles Goldman, the campus limnologist whose research on lake clarity began 42 years ago, predicts the pristine lake will be lost beyond repair in 10 years if efforts aren't taken immediately to curb Tahoe's environmental problems. Goldman's research, which established the benchmark for Tahoe water clarity, is the backbone of the watershed assessment document. Ecology researcher John Reuter led a team of scientists in further assessing water quality at the lake, which is now losing a foot of clarity each year. Professor Emeritus Tom Cahill, of the land, air and water resources department, led the team that produced the air quality portion of the assessment. And Michael Barbour, professor of environmental horticulture, made a substantial contribution on forestry issues. "The lake is so deep and so big, a lot of these pollutants that affect clarity can actually stay there for 10 or 20 years," Reuter told the Los Angeles Times. "So it's almost like compound interest in a bank account, where this stuff just continues to build up and build up faster than it can leave the lake." Among UC Davis' key findings in the watershed assessment: * Atmospheric deposition accounts for one-fourth of the phosphorus and half of the nitrogen flowing into Lake Tahoe. But Cahill said more needs to be known about the origins of the pollutants, so that specific air-quality standards can be developed for the basin. * Algal growth in the lake is increasing by more than 5 percent each year. Reuter reported that future studies need to focus immediately on determining which chemical forms of phosphorus are used by phytoplankton, the producer of algae, and the development of effective controls to prevent that phosphorus from entering the lake. * Forests are in a critical state, vulnerable to insect attacks brought on by stress and in need of natural fire. However, smoke from burns may violate federal and state air quality standards. And ozone in the atmosphere at the lake continues to rise, and is beginning to damage some pines. The presence of the three Nevada and California university chief executives-and their signing of the Tahoe Environmental Science System (TESS) agreement-was also of major significance at the watershed assessment event, which drew more than 150 people to the North Lake Tahoe Conference Center despite a snowstorm. "Seeing the three of them together in one place is an amazing thing. This is a historic event," said Desert Research Institute scientist Roger Jacobson, one of a group of scientists that crafted the lab-sharing agreement, which settles months of sometimes contentious relations between the institutions over facilities at the lake. To be known as TESS -- in light reference to a fabled, friendly Tahoe monster named Tessie -- the science system will join three research facilities under a single entity spanning two states. It will include the planned $12 million expansion of UC Davis' current Tahoe City research lab, to be known as the Lake Tahoe Center for Environmental Research. The agreement also includes a field research station being developed by UNR at the historic Thunderbird Lodge property on Tahoe's east shore, and a proposed research and policy center that would be constructed by the Desert Research Institute near Zephyr Cove. "To know our facilities, and UC Davis facilities, will be open to everyone -- no boundaries, no sentries, no border guards -- that is indeed something to celebrate," said UNR President Joseph Crowley. The science system builds upon a memorandum of understanding signed last August pledging that the three institutions and local and federal agencies will work together to foster research that can facilitate sound environmental management of the basin. Collaboration between the three institutions is already under way, with researchers working on their first-ever joint grant proposal. The application to the National Science Foundation, for $5 million over five years, would be for cross-disciplinary studies of the socio-economic impacts caused by the growing residential and tourist population at the lake. Representatives from all three institutions will also sit on a Science Advisory Group created by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency to advise and direct future research at the lake.