COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — The Kootenai County Sheriff's Office (KCSO) and a local scuba company were cleaning trash out of Lake Coeur d'Alene on a cold and windy Wednesday.
The weather didn't stop divers from the KCSO and Jake's Scuba Adventures from taking out 2,640 pounds of trash from the lake.
The sheriff's office does yearly cleanups, and they get quite a bit of trash.
"It's disheartening to say the least," Sgt. Ryan Miller said. "So we're really trying to clean that stuff up, because it's important to us and families that recreate out here and like to enjoy the water."
Miller said this is the third time this year Jake's Scuba Adventures has done a clean up in partnership with Project Aware, a nonprofit that focuses on clearing marine litter.
The crews entered the water from the boat launch next to the Coeur d'Alene Resort. The focus for Wednesday's cleanup is the area of the lake near the boat dock area next to Tubbs Hill.
The types of debris the divers were finding covered a wide range and weren't all put in the lake by accident.
"We've pulled out tires, a lot of beer cans and beer bottles, and signs, old traffic signs that were tossed in here. A large amount of tires, that's one of the main things we're seeing," Miller said.
With Tubbs Hill being a popular recreational area in the hot summer months, Miller hopes the public can help keep the lake clean.
"I think it's a common courtesy, and there's signs everywhere that say pack it in, pack it out," Miller said. "It's also illegal, littering is illegal, it's a misdemeanor in most cases, in some cases its an infraction."