PacBell agrees to remove defunct lead telephone cables

AT&T-owned Pacific Bell will remove two large, defunct telephone cables from the bottom of Lake Tahoe following an agreement reached in federal court in response to a California environmental nonprofit’s legal complaint.

The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance filed a complaint in January against Pacific Bell Telephone Co., arguing that the presence of PacBell submarine telephone lines on the west side of Lake Tahoe violates federal and state environmental rules.

CSPA alleged that the equipment pollutes the lake with vast amounts of lead.

“Local divers discovered the abandoned cables years ago while removing other trash from the lake bottom, and the nonprofit California Sportfishing Protection Alliance brought suit under federal law and California’s Proposition 65,” another Californiabased nonprofit, the Center for Environmental Health, said in a news release.

Prop. 65, passed by voters in 1986, deals with safe drinking water standards.

The PacBell telephone cables contain copper transmission wires, shielded by lead sheathing. The Center for Environmental Health claimed the two cables contain 63 tons of lead, which has been leaching into Lake Tahoe at rates far above legal limits.

Pacific Bell contended in legal filings that it no longer owns the cables because of expired easements and that it stopped using them in or around the 1980s, court documents show.

Under a consent decree made final earlier this month in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, Pacific Bell admitted no fault or liability but agreed to make $1.5 million in funding available for removing the two cables, which span about 8 miles.

The funding should be more than enough to cover the cost of removal, which the court order notes is estimated to range between $275,000 and $550,000.

The court order also stipulated that Pacific Bell begin securing all necessary permits or authorizations for lawful removal.

“Defendant shall remove the cables from Lake Tahoe and transport them for lawful off-site disposal or to a cable recycler within ninety (90) days following receipt of all authorizations or the court entry date, whichever is later,” the decree reads.

Pacific Bell also was ordered to reimburse $220,000 of CSPA’s legal costs.

“Lake Tahoe is one of California’s iconic waterways,” Bill Jennings, executive director of CSPA, said in a prepared statement.

“We’re proud to help get this toxic garbage out of the Lake.”