Tires, Scrap Metal, and Broken Glass: What a Volunteer Dive Cleanup Pulled Off the Bottom
On a Tuesday morning at Tubbs Hill, a team of divers went under the surface of Lake Coeur d’Alene and started handing up what they found. Broken glass. Cans. Tires. Phones. Scrap metal. Around twenty-five volunteers worked the shoreline and the water together, and the haul went straight into a trailer bound for the dump. The cleanup was organized by Captain Austin Munda of Marine Rescue Coeur d’Alene, and it took two recovery divers, seven volunteer divers, and an underwater drone to scout the bottom for what to bring up.
It looked like a good day on the water. It was also a snapshot of what sits on almost any lakebed once you actually look.
What settles on the bottom does not stay put
Most people picture a lake as its surface. The problem is everything under it. The debris that came out of Coeur d’Alene is the same debris that collects in any lake near a trail, a road, or a boat ramp, and none of it is inert.
A single tire in the water is not just an eyesore. Tire rubber sheds a compound called 6PPD-quinone as it breaks down, and researchers have found it lethal to some fish at very low concentrations. A lead-acid car battery, a common find in any urban lake, cracks open over time into lead and sulfuric acid, and the lead settles into the sediment where it moves up the food chain. Scrap metal leaches as it corrodes. And any vehicle fluids that ride along carry their own math: the EPA’s widely cited figure is that one gallon of motor oil can foul up to a million gallons of fresh water. What looks like a pile of junk is a slow, steady contamination source.
The hard part is knowing where to look
The Coeur d’Alene crew used an underwater drone to find debris before the divers went down. That detail matters more than it seems. On most lakes, nobody has a map of what is on the bottom. Debris gets found by accident, by a diver who happens to swim over it, or by a piece that surfaces on its own. The cleanup only works when someone knows where to point.
That is the gap volunteer efforts keep running into. The willingness is there. What is missing is a system to locate what is submerged and the equipment to bring it up safely, especially when the object is heavier than a bottle or a tire.
Utah has the same lakes and the same gap
Idaho does not have a monopoly on submerged junk. The same tires, batteries, and scrap sit at the bottom of Utah Lake, the Jordan River corridor, and reservoirs across the state, and there is no dedicated public team whose job is to find and remove it. That is the gap Fathom Restoration is built to close. We are a disabled-veteran-led Utah 501(c)(3) nonprofit focused on lake cleanup and the recovery of submerged vehicles, vessels, and debris from Utah’s waterways, the material that no agency budget currently accounts for. Real lake cleanup means reaching the bottom, not just skimming the surface.
A trailer full of debris left Coeur d’Alene that morning because a group of people decided to look under the water. Utah’s lakes deserve the same. If you know of a vehicle, vessel, or debris pile on the bottom of a Utah waterway, report it to us at fathomrestoration.org.
Fathom Restoration is a disabled-veteran-led Utah 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to lake cleanup and the recovery of submerged vehicles, vessels, and debris from Utah’s lakes and waterways. Donate / Volunteer / Report a vehicle at fathomrestoration.org.
Source: https://hagadonenewsnetwork.com/news/2026/may/27/labor-of-love-volunteers-unite-to-clean-coeur-dalene-lake/
