Broken, abandoned boats litter Lake Tahoe
During the height of the pandemic, I would take early morning walks along the vast stretch of sandy beach in Kings Beach a few times a month. It’s peaceful in the mornings, with few people on the beach. One morning, I found a sailboat wrecked off shore. I wasn’t alarmed, as Lake Tahoe can be as violent and unpredictable as an ocean and boats can break free of moorings.
A few weeks later, I returned for another walk to discover the sailboat was still there. That is unusual. Generally, owners have their boats removed and file an insurance claim. I wondered if maybe the owner wasn’t aware during the lockdowns of the pandemic. Again, I wasn’t alarmed given the circumstances around COVID. I made a few phone calls to local agencies reporting it and didn’t think much about it again.
I returned about a month later and the boat was still there. Now, I was concerned. I took photos of what looked like an oil slick on the surface of the water around the boat and emailed several local agencies but received no response. It was then that I called Priya Hutner, who has written numerous stories for Tahoe Weekly on trash issues in the region, that we needed to focus on wrecked boats for our next trash story.
Read our coverage on Tahoe’s Trash Problems.
We intended to run the story in the early part of summer to coincide with the start of Tahoe’s boating season to help inform and educate our readers about this issue that has been largely unaddressed by numerous public agencies. What followed, however, was 2 months of research and dozens of phone calls to find an answer for her story “Broken & abandoned in Lake Tahoe: Removing wrecked boats complicated issue.”
What we discovered is that there is no agency ultimately in charge of ensuring these wrecks are removed from the Lake. Numerous agencies and nonprofits have stepped in to attempt to mitigate the pollution from oils and other fluids, but the boats that are left to break apart are ground down into microplastics that pollute our local waterways and harm wildlife.
As of press time, the boat was still listing off shore in Kings Beach but TRPA did report to us that it would be removed soon. I give kudos to Priya for her hard work and pressure in trying to find an answer to this trash issue as a factor in its removal after nearly 3 years. We’ll continue to monitor the status of the sailboat and provide an update when it’s finalized.
