https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/att-does-not-intend-immediately-remove-lead-cables-lake-tahoe-court-filing-2023-07-18/

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AT&T does not intend to immediately remove lead cables from Lake
Tahoe -court filing

By David Shepardson
July 18, 202310:48 PM UTCUpdated ago

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The company logo for AT&T is displayed on a screen on the floor at
the NYSE in New York
Lake Tahoe is pictured in March 2023

[1/2]The company logo for AT&T is displayed on a screen on the floor
at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., September
18, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

July 18 (Reuters) - AT&T (T.N) said on Tuesday it does not intend to
immediately remove lead cables from Lake Tahoe pending further
analysis, according to a court filing.

Shares of AT&T this week hit their lowest level in 30 years, after
analysts downgraded the stock following a July 9 Wall Street Journal
report that AT&T and other telecom companies have left toxic lead
cables on poles, underwater and buried under ground. AT&T shares
dipped 0.6% to close at $13.45 on Tuesday.

AT&T on Tuesday harshly criticized the newspaper's reporting and
testing, saying it "differs dramatically from the expert testing
commissioned by AT&T."

In Tuesday's court filing, AT&T argued that lead-clad cables "make up
a small part" of its network.

The company estimated that lead-clad cables "represent less than 10%
of its copper footprint of roughly two million sheath miles of cable,
the overwhelming majority of which remains in active service."

The company added that more than two-thirds of its

lead-clad cabling "is either buried or in conduit, followed by aerial
cable, and with a very small portion running underwater."

The company in 2021 agreed to remove lead-clad telecommunications
cables from Lake Tahoe, which straddles California and Nevada, to
resolve a lawsuit despite its belief that they pose no danger.

A lawyer for the company said in a court filing after the Wall Street
Journal report that the cables should remain "in place to permit
further analysis by any qualified and independent interested party,
including the EPA, and allow the safety of these cables to be
litigated with objective scientific evidence rather than
sensationalized media coverage."

A status conference is set for Thursday.

AT&T cited a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday
in which the Environmental Defense Fund recommended the EPA "assess
the condition of the underwater cables to determine their condition,
their current and anticipated releases to the environment, and the
risks posed by their removal or leaving them in place."

The court filing asserted that the Wall Street Journal's testing "was
both funded by the Environmental Defense Fund and targeted on sites
the Journal believed were most likely to obtain the result it wanted:
high lead levels."

The newspaper, EDF and EPA did not immediately respond to requests
for comment.

Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington Editing by Chris Reese
and Matthew Lewis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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