HURRICANE BEACH, LAKE TAHOE -- The crystal surface of Lake Tahoe belies what's beneath: a hodgepodge of keys dropped from pockets, rusted pieces of metal from boats and, inexplicably, even a saute pan that turned shades of submerged blue and brown.
A small group of Sacramento-area scuba divers spent Sunday at Hurricane Beach, on the west shore, collecting underwater trash.
"It's out of sight, out of mind," said John Day, 42, of Cameron Park. "People think (garbage) just goes to that magic disposal spot in the sky."
The divers pulled on their gear, attaching net bags for the refuse. But mainly, the good deed was an excuse to get in the water.
"Boy, that sounds like fun, I'm going," Mike Massengale, 48, of South Lake Tahoe, said he thought when he saw the event in a newsletter. "I love the serenity of being under the water. It's as close to flying as a human can get."
Massengale hates seeing litter when he's underwater, but he doesn't begrudge its former owners.
"Where there's a lot of people, you're going to find trash, said Massengale, who works for the California Department of Transportation. "I know things fly off boats, but it's nice to get together and clean it up."
Day, who owns the scuba instruction company SACSCUBA, was in the Delta cleaning the hull of a boat in 2001 when he kept tripping over a dumped anchor.
Then he noticed the soda cans and beer bottles.
"I got mad," recalled Day, who works full time as an information technology analyst for the city of Elk Grove. "There was junk everywhere on the bottom."
Day has organized underwater cleanups ever since, hitting popular spots usually along Folsom Lake and the American River. The takings are the expected lost items - popped rafts, sunglasses and wallets. But during a 2007 cleanup beneath Rainbow Bridge in Folsom, Day found the front end of an old Volkswagen. "I'm not going to cure the environment, but I can help by doing my little part," Day said.
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