Volunteers on Wednesday cleaned up more than 8,500 lbs. of trash left by Fourth of July celebrants at Lake Tahoe.
It took 402 volunteers to pick up the 8,559 lbs. of litter, including cigarette butts, plastic food wrappers, beach toys and even barbecues on six popular beaches.
The organization behind the cleanup, Keep Tahoe Blue, said Commons Beach in Tahoe City and Kings Beach State Recreation Area were "relatively litter-free."
The League to Save Lake Tahoe has conducted the cleanup since 2014, but the trash removed "is tragically an all-time high," the group said in a media release.
“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,” said 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.”
Most of the trash was on Zephyr Shoals. The group said the Lake Tahoe Basin acts as a giant granite funnel, and any trash left behind would have ended up in the lake's famous blue waters.
Various agencies and organizations were involved in the cleanup: 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.
