RUBICON BAY, Calif. – The drive from South Lake Tahoe to the West Shore is filled with breathtaking views of crisp blue water, rugged alpine shores, and lakefront homes scattered throughout the treacherous landscape; but something is lurking below the lake’s surface that is also present on this majestic tour of Lake Tahoe – lead cables.

From Baldwin Beach in South Lake Tahoe to the West Shore in Rubicon Bay, lead cables are present in Lake Tahoe, and have been for decades. In total, these lead cables span nearly 10% of Tahoe’s total shoreline, with a total length of 32,940 feet of cables, located directly below one of the most populated shoreline areas of Lake Tahoe.

In an effort to aid in the removal of these dormant lead cables, a new organization is stepping up in the Lake Tahoe community to promptly remove these potentially harmful lead cables from the lake.

“We don’t want lead in Lake Tahoe,” Tahoe Lead’s website reads. “While Lake Tahoe’s ecosystem is subject to a range of risks, these lead cables pose a unique threat to water quality. Lead is insoluble and could irreparably contaminate our waters, negatively impacting residents, recreation, and wildlife. While it’s unfortunate these cables contain lead, they have not been used for decades, making their removal straightforward.”

Evan Dreyer, lead organizer of the organization, has been passionate about the sustainability of Lake Tahoe’s environment since the beginning of his life. Born in Northern California, Dreyer spent his entire life traveling to Lake Tahoe, spending his summers swimming on the shores of Rubicon Bay, not realizing lead cables lay below. In 2020, Dreyer saw a local boat actively analyzing these cables and spoke to the scientists who were analyzing the cables’ impact on Tahoe’s ecosystem. From that point on, Dreyer knew he wanted to get involved.

“A lot of my path to bringing Tahoe Lead to fruition was because I love Lake Tahoe, this thing is not about me, it’s about Lake Tahoe and the community effort,” Dreyer said.

Dreyer has had a fulfilling career, with previously working on Wall Street in Manhattan for half a decade. After that, he moved back to the West Coast, residing in the Bay Area. Shortly after moving back to California, Dreyer got involved with the San Francisco Baykeeper nonprofit organization, a nonprofit that defends the health of the San Francisco Bay. With Dreyer as a lead organizer for Tahoe Lead, he takes his experience and knowledge from working in the nonprofit space to lead this mission forward.

Upon researching more behind these lead cables, Dreyer went straight to the source, writing directly to the business responsible for these lead cables: AT&T.

“To AT&T’s credit, they’ve been very proactive in communicating with us. We wrote a letter to AT&T’s lawyers and within a month I was out with AT&T looking at the cable in the water and walking them through it,” Dreyer said. “Everyone I’ve dealt with has been pleasant. AT&T has no record of the eight miles of lead they left in Lake Tahoe.”

AT&T was brought into the conversation in 2021 and signed a consent agreement that states AT&T disagrees [lead cables] are polluting Lake Tahoe, and they disagree that these lead cables are a Clean Water Act violation. Even with AT&T disagreeing, the telecommunications company agreed to invest $1.5 million to remove these cables from Lake Tahoe for good.

“When AT&T agreed to remove the cables, it was celebrated in the community,” Dreyer said. “We were very happy and complimentary of them. It was a great moment for environmentalism and sustainability overall.”

According to Dreyer, AT&T initially had a three to six-month timeline to get the cables out of the water, however, like any projects that occur in the Tahoe Basin, there are a lot of agencies and approvals that have to take place in order to move forward on environmental projects. It took AT&T over a year to get the approval they needed to move forward on this project.

In April 2023, AT&T officially acquired seven permits from all the necessary agencies to move forward with removal, which was planned for May 2023. Because of multiple issues with a quick turnaround, AT&T moved the removal to the fall season, pushing it several months out from the anticipated spring removal date. Before the anticipated fall removal, news came out regarding lead cables.

“Last summer, the Wall Street Journal wrote an article “America is Wrapped in Miles of Toxic Lead Cables,” and within a week, AT&T pulled out of the agreement to remove these cables,” Dreyer said. “That was a tough moment, but I understood it. I took a step back, and wanted to re-analyze how we could still move forward with the removal.”

AT&T acquired the necessary permits through a rigorous process of getting the approval to remove the lead cables, and Dreyer wanted to take that valuable piece of the puzzle and continue to trudge forward.

“When stuff isn’t working, you have to keep perspective. AT&T had established that this project is possible, and that’s a huge win,” Dreyer said. “[AT&T] also established the precedent that they were not personally removing the cables, a third-party engineering firm would be physically removing them; and they were using a third-party engineering firm to properly recycle the cables, and they were using the Tahoe Keys Marina to assist in being a hub for easy access in and out of Lake Tahoe, as well. I looked at it and realized that all the permits had been signed, so I took a step back and thought to myself, ‘What if we, as a community of so many people that care about this issue, what if we went to the agencies asking for permission to do the same plan as AT&T to remove these cables? Let us raise the money and hire people to assist, and let’s try it.”

Dreyer dove headfirst into picking up the project where it tapered off last fall 2023, and since then has been proactively speaking with the government agencies who can assist in moving towards the removal of these lead cables.

According to Dreyer, with the permits for removal active for two years since being originally issued, third-party engineering firms still have an interest in participating in the removal, and the Tahoe Keys Marina is still interested in serving as a hub for easy lake access, Dreyer is optimistic that this initiative will come to fruition.

“People love Lake Tahoe, they want to see this done, it’s a no-brainer, these cables are inactive, and no one disagrees with that,” Dryer said. “What people disagree about in the lawsuit is, is lead currently leaching out into Lake Tahoe? Of course, I care about that, but it’s not my consideration. These cables need to be out, you can’t tell me if they’re not leaching lead that they should stay. They need to get out of Lake Tahoe’s waters no matter what.”

Since the Tahoe Lead organization took the initiative to pick up where AT&T left off, they launched a petition in December 2023 to support the organization’s mission to get the cables out of the water. Since the petition has gone live, Tahoe Lead currently has over 270 signatures. As the petition gains momentum, Dreyer is optimistic about the dollar amount it’ll take to remove these cables and with continuously growing community support, this project will be complete by spring 2025.

“The community effort in Lake Tahoe is incredible,” Dreyer said. “The more people I talk to, the more people get involved. There are so many people who are excited to be a part of this project for the sustainability of Lake Tahoe.”

Looking forward, Dreyer and those involved in Tahoe Lead are pushing towards getting Tahoe’s local community members more involved, gaining momentum on their petition, and spreading the word on the importance of “getting the lead out” of Lake Tahoe.

“Reach out to get involved,” Dreyer said. “We want to bring people to the table that can help make strides towards completing this project. Our goal is simple, we want to get the lead out of the lake. Whatever it takes, we are open-minded on the right way to do it, we just want it out by next year. It’s time to get excited for our communities because I believe that we can do this to make this happen as a community and demonstrate community support and money directly at work.”

To get involved, sign Tahoe Lead’s petition to remove the lead cables from Lake Tahoe, donate money towards the removal, or for additional information, visit tahoelead.com or email Evan Dreyer directly at evan@tahoelead.com.