AT&T Agrees to Remove Abandoned Lead Cables From Lake Tahoe

Telecommunications giant AT&T Inc. has reached an agreement over abandoned submarine communication cables that plaintiffs say are contaminating Lake Tahoe with lead and will remove them, according to court filings dated Sept 18.
Documents show the Dallas-headquartered company filed in support of a consent decree with no admission of liability in the U.S. District Court Eastern District of California.
As part of the agreement, AT&T has set a target of removing the cables and recycling or disposing of them by Nov. 30.
Failing that, it will remove them before May 26, 2025—Memorial Day—based on weather conditions, among other factors, according to the consent decree.
The cables at the bottom of the lake straddle California and Nevada’s border.
AT&T Inc. and CSPA conditionally settled regarding the cables in 2021, and the telecommunications company agreed to remove them.
However, the company then retracted that agreement so it could conduct further testing before eventually supporting the latest settlement.
In its lawsuit, CSPA, a non-profit conservation and research organization, said the cables—which are no longer operative—are approximately 41,600 feet long and contain over 68 tons of lead.
According to the legal filing, the cables, and all the lead they contain, were abandoned by AT&T “at some point in the past” when the company replaced them with “new, more modern cables, placed either in the same location or routed through a different location.”
Over time, the cables had deteriorated and degraded, exposing the lead conduit in numerous locations, CSPA said.
Concerned over the potential health and environmental implications the cables could have, CSPA said it had obtained a portion of one of the cables and tested it to see if it was likely to leach lead into Lake Tahoe, which is a popular tourist destination.
Testing found that lead in the cables was being disseminated into the lake and that “humans and wildlife who make contact with, or who drink, Lake Tahoe water are exposed to the toxic heavy metal, lead,” the lawsuit said.
The court is yet to determine what legal fees and costs will be awarded to CSPA as part of the agreement with AT&T Inc.
The Epoch Times has contacted a spokesperson for AT&T Inc. for comment.