Nonprofit organization collects nearly 2,000 pounds of trash at Donner Lake

RENO, Nev. (KOLO) - Clean Up The Lake has been cleaning up Donner Lake over the last two weeks. The nonprofit’s Executive Director, Colin West, said volunteers have collected nearly 2,000 pounds worth of trash.

“It’s like a trash can. There are 12 beer cans within arm’s reach, a little grove of plastic cups and hats that are sitting there, probably like 75 tennis balls we pulled out.”

Local volunteer Amber Defazio has lived in Truckee for 20 years. Defazio said she’s starting to see bigger crowds. “People are trying to get away from the quarantine, stay in place, everyone needs a little bit of nature, we understand that, but we got to work together to keep it clean.”

According to West, the pandemic has made it challenging when it comes to clean up efforts. The organization had to scale down operations for safety reasons.

West said, “You know we are doing surface swims, between our dive spots between our GPS points, because we don’t want to load everyone together on a boat.” He added ‚”It’s physically exhausting with COVID-19. Most importantly fundraising has been a lot harder because those people might’ve lost their business.”

The organization planned to dive and clean up Lake Tahoe’s 72-mile shoreline this summer, but West said the pandemic has postponed those efforts to next year.

Volunteers will continue cleaning up Donner Lake this week. If you would like to donate you can click below:

https://cleanuptheplastic.org/clean-up-the-lake/

Copyright 2020 KOLO. All rights reserved.