AT&T has agreed to remove abandoned telecommunications cables that have caused toxic lead to filter into Lake Tahoe.
The carrier agreed to remove the cabling as part of a settlement it reached in court with the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA), which has been pushing the case since 2021.
According to court documents, AT&T will remove about 107,000 pounds of lead from Lake Tahoe.
The total length of the cabling is estimated to measure around eight miles.
“This is a monumental win for the environment, the communities who drink Lake Tahoe water, the people with lake-dependent livelihoods, and the millions of annual visitors,” said Chris Shutes, executive director for CSPA.
An investigation led by the CSPA found that the abandoned cables were discharging lead. This was the case in Lake Tahoe, noted CSPA, which said that investigations found lead in algae, which forms the base of the food web for the fisheries at Lake Tahoe. The CSPA also found lead in clams and crawdads collected at the cables.
It's not known how long the cables have been in place, though US carriers haven't used cabling containing lead since 1964.
The use of lead within US telecom cabling dates back to the 1880s, initially starting as a way to sheath and protect copper wires from exposure to the elements because lead is very stable and does not rust. Old cabling is typically left in place when traditional cabling is replaced with fiber.
AT&T previously agreed to remove the cables in 2021, before pausing the process to allow for further analysis to be carried out by experts.
"Multiple expert analyses have confirmed that the telecommunications cables in Lake Tahoe are safe and pose no threat to public health or the environment," said AT&T president, California, Marc Blakeman.
The company said it hired nine experts to determine the cabling did “not pose any risk to human health or the environment.”
"While we’re confident in the strength of our case and the safety of the cables, this settlement represents an amicable resolution to litigation. With the litigation behind us, we are fulfilling our original commitment to remove the cables in Lake Tahoe. Now that these studies have been performed and confirmed the safety of the cables, we can return to our commitment to remove the cables.”
DCD has contacted AT&T for further comment.
Last year, a Wall Street Journal investigation found that AT&T, Verizon, and other US telecom companies had contaminated US water and soil with toxic lead cabling.
The investigation collected samples from various parts of the country where the lead could be found, including on the banks of the Mississippi River in Louisiana, the Detroit River in Michigan, the Willamette River in Oregon, and the Passaic River in New Jersey.
In total, the test samples from nearly 130 underwater-cable sites, conducted by several independent laboratories, were found to be toxic.
WSJ states that its investigation revealed a hidden source of contamination in more than 2,000 lead-covered cables that haven't been addressed by the companies or environmental regulators.
