Potentially hundreds of thousands of styrofoam beads washed ashore Incline and Ski Beach on Sunday, following a storm that tore apart a styrofoam dock on the lake. The floating dock, believed to have come from the northeast shore of Lake Tahoe, broke free during the high wind event Saturday, January 6, causing the unintended release of the plastic beads along a large section of the Incline Village shoreline
The Incline Village Improvement District (IVGID) removed the damaged dock this morning and volunteers from Clean Up The Lake and other local residents got to work quickly to clean up its remnant pellets.
This project is critical as styrofoam does not biodegrade, and is hazardous to marine and wildlife in the Tahoe ecosystem. By breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces, plastic foam enters the natural environment and animals often mistake it for food. It can also be toxic to humans as Polystyrene (Styrofoam) can exhibit its toxicity to humans as a neurotoxin by attacking the central and peripheral nervous systems.
The work is tedious and time sensitive as there is another storm coming into the region on Wednesday.
Thousands of these beads remain mixed into the sand and snow.
Lake Tahoe has been found to contain one of the highest concentrations of microplastics, and this incident is a good reminder for people to try and limit any styrofoam-based products like water vessels, equipment, dock materials, even dog and beach toys. If the item breaks apart, it is extremely hard to clean up these environmentally damaging beads.