CLINTON GIFT TO HELP SAVE LAKE TAHOE.

Byline: Sandra Sobieraj Associated Press 

Like one of 2 million tourists each year, President Clinton was drawn Saturday to the pristine blue waters of Lake Tahoe.

But he came with $26 million in trinkets - from new postal trucks to new sewage pipes - and said it was the nation's duty to preserve the lake's fabled purity.

``We cannot divide our quest for prosperity from our obligation to hand nature - God's great gift to us - on down through the generations,'' Clinton told local leaders.

At a brief campaign-style rally before his departure for Los Angeles, Clinton said he hoped the Lake Tahoe partnerships among state, local and federal entities would prove a model nationwide for ``how we ought to do other things.''

Officials likened the federal assistance for preserving Lake Tahoe to the government's protection of other ``national treasures'' such as the Florida Everglades and Grand Canyon.

His commitment, nearly doubling to $50 million over two years the federal help for Lake Tahoe, included promises for future funds but fell far short of the $300 million state and local officials had sought for a 10-year program of cleanup and preservation.

``We hope to do more,'' Clinton said.

Jim Lyons, undersecretary of agriculture, explained: ``We're going to commit to what we know we can do now. In the out-years, we're going to have to work with our friends in Congress to expand that commitment.''

Clinton, accompanied by Vice President Al Gore, toured the lake in a motorized research boat and saw firsthand the toll tourism and development - and motor boats - have taken on the clear waters that Mark Twain once called ``the fairest picture the whole Earth affords.''

Dropping a dinner plate overboard, Clinton lost sight of the white disk as it sunk to about 90 feet. In 1968, the plate could be seen from a depth of 105 feet.

Development has washed into the lake nutrients that feed algae.

Clinton joked that Gore, an avowed enviro-geek, gave him a ``Marine Biology 101 lecture'' on phosphorous and nitrogen. ``I looked at the plankton. I could pass anybody's test now,'' Clinton chuckled.

In rolled-up shirt sleeves that matched the water's blue, Clinton signed an executive order putting in motion a 27-point plan to save the lake. He authorized controlled fires to clear surrounding forests of a century's buildup of fire-prone trees and brush.

The federal government owns about 80 percent of the Lake Tahoe basin, which is ringed by casinos and ski resorts.

The president's three-day Western visit, which was anchored by plans for daylong golf outings in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, came two days after he launched his push for a global treaty to cut greenhouse gas emissions and arrest global warming. The Senate, which would have to ratify any treaty, responded Friday with a unanimous resolution against it, complaining that some 130 developing nations would not have to abide by emission limits.

As part of his plan for Lake Tahoe, Clinton promised a $7 million sewage pipeline to replace South Lake Tahoe's deteriorating one; shuttle bus service for beachgoers; natural gas postal trucks to replace the area's fleet of diesel-burners, and $1 million for the U.S. Forest Service to acquire additional acreage from willing sellers.

Also, through a ``special-use permit,'' Clinton essentially returned to the Washoe Indian tribe, for the first time in more than 100 years, a parcel of property with access to the water's edge. In Washoe, the word for Tahoe means ``edge of the lake.''

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Photo: (color) Vice President Al Gore watches President Clinton sign an executive order for preserving Lake Tahoe during a visit there Saturday.

Associated Press