President Barack Obama plans to speak Wednesday at an annual summit dedicated to Lake Tahoe, the popular getaway Mark Twain called the world's "fairest picture" and naturalist John Muir tried to designate a national park.
Democratic Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada launched the gathering 20 years ago to draw attention to reductions in the alpine lake's famed clarity. President Bill Clinton spoke at the first summit in 1997.
Reid, who is retiring this year, hopes to generate support for hundreds of millions of dollars in future spending at the huge water body that straddles the California-Nevada border.
Since 2009, Congress has been considering spending another $400 million at the lake over 10 years.
Meanwhile, scientists have identified a new threat: climate change. The lake's temperature has risen faster over the past four years than any time on record.
That appears to be contributing to changes in Lake Tahoe's internal physics, experts say. The lake's "mixing depth" last year — an important measurement of the intermingling of varying water depths — was the shallowest ever recorded.
