Clean Up The Lake is a Tahoe-based non-profit organization focused on, you guessed it, cleaning up the lake. The group uses scuba teams to dive into the mountain lake and haul trash and litter out for proper disposal. It is indeed sad that this is necessary, but apparently, there is a substantial population of people who feel like they can toss their beer cans and food wrappers into Lake Tahoe.
Clean Up The Lake has now covered 42 miles of coastline and has 29 miles to go. The group has had 49 dive days and have hauled over 18,000 pounds of trash from the depths of the lake. Beer cans are the most common find but according to the group, other treasures include an engagement ring and poker chips.
Colin West is the founder and executive director of the group. He is working on a documentary on the project called “Make a Difference”. He hopes this project serves as a wake-up call that reminds people that the battle to protect our planet is not lost. We can still make a difference and work to fix the issues humans have created.