Emerald Bay is known for its beauty, with an island castle at its center, and an underwater state park full of sunken boats. But that’s not all that lies beneath the water’s surface.

Two defunct, lead-clad telecommunications cables run across the mouth of the bay and along Tahoe’s southwestern shores.

An ongoing court battle and investigation by the Wall Street Journal have brought the cables into the public eye.

The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance has sued AT&T to have the cables removed, while competing studies by AT&T and WSJ resulted in drastically different findings on whether the lines pose any risk to the lake and its visitors.

Now, community members are stepping up to the plate to see if they can cut through the complicated issue and simply have the cables removed themselves.

“I got involved in this back in June 2020 when I observed two divers actually inspecting these cables,” Evan Dreyer, lead organizer for the Tahoe Lead Removal Project said on Monday, standing near one of the cables along Baldwin Beach. “Our goal is simple. Get the lead out. That’s all we’re trying to accomplish.”

Dreyer says the movement has already collected almost 450 signatures on a petition, but more importantly, he’s shaking hands with the people who can get the job done. Court documents show that AT&T received all the permits it needed to remove the cables in 2023, but the company has not launched the project. Dreyer says he and his fellow organizers are retracing AT&T’s steps to take the project to completion.

“Government agencies have confirmed that this work can be done, and we can kind of take that momentum, build off it, and take it through to completion and get the lead out,” he said. “There’s a lot of complexity, and we’re trying to re-baseline it, make it simple, and say hey, let’s get the lead out. Let’s get it out once and for all. It’s something that we know we can do.”

In a written statement, AT&T said that the company maintains that the lead-clad cables pose no risk to Lake Tahoe or its visitors.

“In 2021, we agreed to remove them simply to avoid protracted litigation,” the company said. “The cables are being maintained in place to preserve evidence, permit further analysis by qualified and independent interested parties and allow the safety of these cables to be analyzed through objective scientific evidence.”

Dreyer said he doesn’t want to let the cables sit and wait.

“We don’t want to wait and, hey, maybe it becomes an issue or not. There’s no going back, you know. This is something that it’s a place that matters so much to us,” he said. “Let’s stay on our front foot. Let’s be proactive. Let’s remove this risk to the lake.”

To learn more about the Tahoe Lead Removal Project or sign the community petition they’ve posted, visit their website here.