SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – Twelve years ago, about 139,000 pounds of telecommunication lead cables were found abandoned along almost eight miles of Lake Tahoe shoreline. One long segment of the cables was resting offshore between Baldwin Beach and Rubicon Way, and another segment was inside Emerald Bay.
The defunct century-old telephone cables contain toxic lead. That discovery led to years of work, first to discover what the cables were, who they belonged to, and what they were doing to the lake. Seth Jones, co-founder of Below the Blue who found the cable, took a sample from the cable and assayed it at their lab in San Diego.
Three years ago there was an agreement with AT&T, the company that acquired the one responsible for the cable installation, to get them removed. They were to pay $1.5 million to pay for their removal but things stalled when similar situations were found across the United States.
Evan Dreyer of the Tahoe Lead Removal Project made presentations this past summer and started a petition to get the attention of AT&T and speed up the removal of the cables.
Now, almost half of the cables have been removed with crews continuing to work on getting the rest of them out. Dreyer said it’s been, “Very exciting to see all of this happening!”
A mild fall allowed those tasked with removing the cable great weather conditions when they started at the beginning of November. Work will continue as the weather allows.