It’s no secret that Lake Tahoe has a trash problem, and local nonprofit Clean Up the Lake has pulled more than 61,000 pounds of debris from the lake since 2018. But as scuba divers are limited to a depth of about 60 feet, that leaves 1,584 feet of depths the organization can’t reach. Enter the Restoring the Lake Depths Foundation, a South Lake Tahoe-based nonprofit using a deep-water robot to pull refuse from beneath the surface.
” The robot also has a grappling hook to pull up bigger objects and a storage basket for collecting plastics. It can move about 4 mph underwater and see between 30 and 60 feet in either direction, depending on the water clarity. So far, the organization has covered a roughly 13-mile stretch of lake running from South Lake Tahoe to Cave Rock.