LAKE TAHOE, Nev. (KRNV) — Over three hours on the morning after 4th of July, 402 volunteers cleaned up 8,559 pounds of litter left from the celebrations at Lake Tahoe.
Cigarette butts, plastic food wrappers, beach toys and even barbecues were taken from six popular beach sites, as well as nearby parking lots and streets around the Tahoe basin.
Some sites like Commons Beach in Tahoe City and Kings Beach State Recreation Area were relatively litter free due to having more trash cans, restrooms and management staff available to help prevent pollution.
The League to Save Lake Tahoe has organized the annual July 5 “Keep Tahoe Red, White & Blue” Beach Cleanup since 2014.
Despite several clean beaches, the trash removed this year is an all-time high.
“This morning, one of Tahoe’s beaches looked like a landfill. Thanks to passionate volunteers and community partners, it started to look like Tahoe again after some hard work,” noted Dr. Darcie Goodman Collins, CEO of the League to Save Lake Tahoe. “To Keep Tahoe Blue, everyone who enjoys this place must act more like our volunteers and partners by doing their part. It starts with leaving nothing behind and picking up any trash you come across. Unless each of us share in the responsibility for protecting this place, it could be ruined.”
Zephyr Shoals, an unmanaged stretch of beach on Tahoe’s east shore, was by far the most impacted of the six cleanup sites. The site is far from any permanent trash cans, dumpsters or toilets. 6,279 pounds of litter, the equivalent of a 3/4 ton pickup truck, was piled all over the narrow strip of sand and in between bushes and trees in the forest nearby. The area is regularly cleaned by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency’s “Tahoe Blue Crew,” a volunteer program offered by the League.
Fourteen businesses, organizations and local governments partnered with the League to Save Lake Tahoe to bring this cleanup event to life: Mananalu Pure Water, Clean Up The Lake, Stio Mountain Studio, Zephyr Cove Resort, Bally’s Lake Tahoe, ECO-CLEAN Solutions, California State Parks, the City of South Lake Tahoe, Tahoe City Public Utility District, USFS-Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit, Vista Recreation, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, Tahoe City Downtown Association, Northstar California Resort, Kirkwood Mountain Resort, and Heavenly Mountain Resort.
“Heavenly, Kirkwood, and Northstar are proud to partner with the League to Save Lake Tahoe through our EpicPromise program for their July 5th beach cleanup,” said Tom Fortune, VP and COO of Heavenly and the Tahoe Region at Vail Resorts. “It is crucial that we all work together as good stewards of the environment – something we deeply value as a company and as members of the Tahoe community. We are grateful to the League for their work and in organizing this annual event that all of our teams look forward to.”
Each cleanup site included its own unique features, including the BEBOT, an eelctric beach-cleaning robot that sifts the sand to remove tiny plastic bits and other trash. Another innovative technology, a mobile watercraft cleaning station, was introduced for the first time on July 5. The League and TRPA partnered to provide funding for the trailer-mounted station that any paddler can use to remove ecologically disastrous invasive species from kayaks or paddle boards before they enter the water. The station will be deployed at several locations throughout the summer.
Divers from nonprofit Clean Up The Lake also plucked trash from below the water at Zephyr Shoals.
“I’ve lived here for 36 years and volunteered with Keep Tahoe Blue every July 5th for the past seven years,” said John Ruiz, a South Lake Tahoe resident. “I love it here and hate to see it get trashed, so I donate my time to keep it clean. I wish everyone would join me to preserve Tahoe for all the years to come.”
