Crews Remove Miles of Abandoned, Lead-Coated Telephone Cables From the Bottom of Lake Tahoe

Miles of defunct, lead-covered telephone cables have long sat abandoned beneath the cerulean waters of Lake Tahoe. Now, after years of legal back-and-forth, the cables have been removed.

Scuba divers discovered the cables on the lake’s sandy, silty bottom in 2012. The cables consist of copper wires surrounded by a layer of lead sheathing. They were laid in Lake Tahoe decades ago—possibly as early as the 1920s—while telephone service was expanding across the United States. As technology advanced, telecom companies installed newer cables, but they left the old ones in place.

Over time, the Lake Tahoe cables suffered damage from boat anchors and debris. Health and environmental activists and residents grew concerned that the torn cables were leaching lead into the lake, which is a popular swimming destination and provides drinking water for some nearby households.

The cables’ origins are a little murky, but they are believed to have been originally installed by Bell Systems, which was later acquired by AT&T, as the San Francisco Chronicle’s Gregory Thomas reported in August. In 2021, the nonprofit California Sportfishing Protection Alliance filed a civil lawsuit against AT&T over the cables.

A 2023 Wall Street Journal investigation subsequently found abandoned, lead-covered telecommunications cables across the nation. The publication hired an environmental consulting firm to take soil and water samples from areas near the cables. Testing near the cables in Lake Tahoe showed lead levels that, in one sample, were 2,533 times higher than those recommended by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), according to the Wall Street Journal.

AT&T disputed the claims that the cables had contaminated Lake Tahoe, and it commissioned its own lead tests that concluded the cables were “safe and pose no threat to public health nor the environment,” per its website. But the telecommunications company agreed to remove the cables anyway.

This fall, AT&T hired J.F. Brennan Co., a marine services contractor, to remove the cables. Crews worked daily 12-hour shifts for more than two weeks to extract the old infrastructure from the lakebed. They finished the work on November 17, reports SFGate’s Julie Brown Davis.

Scuba divers and a remotely operated underwater vehicle worked in the water, while other crew members were stationed aboard a large barge and a smaller boat, per SFGate. The on-deck teams used a winch to hoist the heavy cables onto the barge, where they cut them into smaller pieces.

Crews then ferried the cable pieces to Tahoe Keys Marina, loaded them onto trucks and drove them to a recycling facility.

In total, teams removed nearly eight miles of cable from the southwestern part of the lake: One section was located in Emerald Bay, while the other stretched between Rubicon Point and Baldwin Beach. According to the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance’s calculations, the effort was slated to remove roughly 107,000 pounds of lead from the lake.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Keep Tahoe Blue (@keeptahoeblue)

Researchers have not come to a consensus on whether the cables damaged the lake, reports USA Today’s Greta Cross. “In an abundance of caution and without real access to the full range of all the scientific studies, our priority was to remove the cables as quickly and as safely as possible, always with that environmental protection at the forefront,” Laura Patten, natural resource director for the nonprofit League to Save Lake Tahoe, tells the publication.

Lead is a naturally occurring heavy metal. But when ingested, it can accumulate in the body and lead to health issues. Children ages 6 and younger are especially vulnerable to lead exposure, which can lead to issues like slow growth, hearing problems, anemia, behavior and learning problems, lower IQ and hyperactivity, according to the EPA. In some cases, lead ingestion can cause seizures, coma or death. The EPA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have found that no amount of lead is safe for kids.

Pregnant women and some other adults can also suffer from health issues linked to lead, such as high blood pressure, decreased kidney function, reproductive problems, miscarriage and more.

Lead is also fatally toxic to animals, including endangered California condors and bald eagles.

Historically, lead was used in drinking water pipes, ammunition, gasoline and paint. But over the last six decades, those uses have been restricted or banned.

Sarah Kuta | READ MORE

Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.