They did it! Clean Up the Lake finishes cleaning all 72 miles of Lake Tahoe shoreline - 25k pounds of trash removed

LAKE TAHOE, Calif./Nev. - It has been just four days shy of one year since the first jump into Lake Tahoe to start removing trash around its 72-miles of shoreline. Now 81 dive days later, the non-profit Clean Up The Lake has finished its extraordinary initial goal of recovering thousands of pounds of trash from the lake.

The first trip around the lake has resulted in the removal of 24,756 items of trash weighing 25,281.3 pounds, which includes:

5,415 plastic items weighing 2467.2 lbs

1259 rubber items weighing 4275.8 lbs
739 wood items weighing 1723.6 lbs
170 tires weighing 3423.3 lbs
6,721 glass items weighing 3478.1 lbs
9035 metal items weighing 8775 lbs
1252 clothing items weighing 1513.1 lbs
4,527 aluminum cans weighing 508 lbs

During the 81 dive days there were 189 separate clean-up dives and divers used 626 cylinders of air. In total, 136 trained volunteers participated and contributed 6,715 volunteer hours.

In August 2021, the team at Clean Up The Lake finished the first milestone of 22.5 miles of underwater clean-up being completed with 8,122 pounds of trash removed from Lake Tahoe.

Over 100 volunteers helped with the effort with over 100 donors helping to fund the operation which was spearheaded by the Tahoe Fund and started with a $100,000 donation from Tahoe Blue Vodka. Other donors included Vail Resorts, other grant-giving foundations, Amerian Century Championships, and the Nevada Division of State Lands Lake Tahoe License Plate program.

"I could never have enough gratitude to everyone who has made this possible," said Colin West, Clean Up The Lake founder and executive director, as he came out of the lake Tuesday with his team.

"Rarely does anyone come to me with a dream this big," said Tahoe Fund Executive Director Amy Berry of Colin West. "This is what happens when a community comes together like this."

Lake Tahoe wasn't the first test of diving to remove trash. West and the team were at Donner Lake first and will return there this summer to see if people are doing better at keeping trash out of the lake. Clean Up The Lake will also visit other Sierra lakes including Fallen Leaf Lake and the Mammoth Lakes area.

"We have a lot of work to do - fix our mistakes and make sure they don't happen again," said Colin.

He said they need to show how products affect the environment, and address the causes at the top, at the boardroom level.

"We need to figure out how to do better," added Colin.

As divers circumnavigated the lake, they recovered not only plastic bottles, cans and other “typical” litter, but items that included engagement rings, 1980’s Nikon film cameras, entire lamp-posts, “no littering” signs, massive pieces of broken down boats and engine blocks, lost wallets, cordless home telephones, a blackberry mobile phone, and more.

“Tahoe Blue Vodka sponsored this effort because we place tremendous value on the health of Lake Tahoe, not only because our vodka is inspired by its waters, but because it is such a huge part of what makes our community so special,” said Matt Levitt, Tahoe Blue Vodka founder. “The perseverance of the dive team and volunteers who never gave up, and their commitment to continuing clean-up efforts both in Lake Tahoe and other waterways in our region is inspiring.”

Clean Up The Lake will collaborate with scientific institutions and environmental consultants to study the recovered litter to develop a better understanding of its impact on Lake Tahoe. In addition, the Tahoe Fund with support from Tahoe Blue Vodka, recently announced it has commissioned artists to create a sculpture using some of the recovered items from the Lake. “Surfaced,” a permanent art installation, will be featured at the new Tahoe South Events Center to educate visitors about what lies beneath Tahoe’s blue waters.