AT&T Halts Removal of Lead-Clad Cables From Lake Tahoe to Develop a ‘Further Record’
AT&T “strongly disagrees” with the reporting in a recent Wall Street Journal series asserting inoperative lead-clad telecom cables at the bottom of Lake Tahoe are a significant public health concern, said the company’s supplemental status report Tuesday (docket 2:21-cv-00073) in…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
U.S. District Court for Eastern California in Sacramento. The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance sued AT&T in January 2021 to enjoin the company from continuing to release lead into the waters of Lake Tahoe. The parties remain at an impasse over removal of the cables, said AT&T’s report. The WSJ’s assertions “are based on testing of water samples collected by the same divers” who aided the alliance in its litigation, it said. Though AT&T didn't receive the complete test results, the information reported by the WSJ “differs dramatically from the expert testing commissioned by AT&T,” it said. “Under the circumstances, AT&T submits the responsible course of action is to develop a further record rather than remove the Lake Tahoe cables and work cooperatively with regulators and other stakeholders on a risk assessment,” it said. The Environmental Defense Fund agrees, it said.