AT&T’s PacBell subsidiary will pull 8 miles of decrepit telephone cable out of Lake Tahoe where it has been leaching toxic lead into the lake’s water for decades, under a settlement agreement finalized last week in federal court in Sacramento, according to a press release from the Center for Environmental Health.
Local divers discovered the abandoned cables years ago while removing other trash from the lake bottom and the nonprofit California Sportfishing Protection Alliance sued under federal law and California’s Proposition 65.
PacBell switched to fiber optic phone cables more than 30 years ago and the old cables were abandoned in place on the lake’s bottom. The old cables extend for 8 miles from Baldwin Beach to Rubicon Bay, including across the mouth of Emerald Bay. | ceh.org
