2025-08-04 Fourth Amended Complaint filed in Tahoe Case Against TRPA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: August 4, 2024
Fourth Amended Complaint Filed in Landmark Case That Challenges TRPA for Failing to Protect Lake from Cell Tower Radiation, Wildfire Hazards, and Microplastic Pollution
Lake Tahoe — BBILAN, along with co-counsel Robert Berg and Gregg Lien, filed a Fourth Amended Complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California which continues to challenge the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency’s (TRPA) failure to fulfill its responsibilities under the California-Nevada Interstate Compact. Plaintiffs contend that TRPA is mandated by Congress to protect to protect Lake Tahoe’s environment and public health from the unchecked proliferation of wireless cell towers.
On July 31, 2025, plaintiffs in Eisenstecken et al. v. Tahoe Regional Planning Agency et al. filed their Fourth Amended Complaint pursuant to the Court's order allowing plaintiffs to amend, alleging that TRPA has repeatedly violated federal law by failing to produce a written record supported by substantial evidence addressing five major categories of harm caused by the rapid densification of macro and small cell wireless facilities throughout the Tahoe Basin.
Among the most egregious examples cited is an approved 150-foot cell tower located at 1360 Ski Run Boulevard in South Lake Tahoe, directly above a winter sledding area, raising serious health, safety, and environmental concerns.
Plaintiffs allege that TRPA’s piecemeal wireless permit approval process, exemplified in this and many other cases, ignores:
Electromagnetic radiation risks linked to cancer, chronic diseases, and other serious illnesses and medical conditions;
Toxic microplastic pollution from degrading faux “monopines” that contaminate Tahoe’s pristine watershed, in direct violation of the Compact’s environmental protections;
Wildfire hazards posed by electrical installations on cell towers that have not been approved by professional electrical engineers;
Public safety, especially involving evacuation during wildfires, recognizing that minority and disabled populations have limited capacity and means of escape;
Aesthetic blight caused by naked and faux tree macro towers that scar Tahoe’s natural landscape.
The suit seeks a federal court order requiring TRPA to:
Stop the operation, and order the removal, of the specific dangerous illegally-permitted macro tower at 1360 Ski Run Boulevard;
Impose a moratorium on all new macro cell tower permits until TRPA complies with the Compact and other federal environmental laws;
Prepare a comprehensive, basin-wide Environmental Impact Statement on the cumulative impacts of the five harms.
Plaintiffs argue that prior to 2012, TRPA had a record of enforcing its Compact obligations, including imposing moratoria to protect the environment from cumulative harms. Plaintiffs are asking the Court to uphold these protections, banning environmentally hazardous “monopines” forever to safeguard Tahoe’s drinking water, food supplies from Lake Tahoe, and iconic natural beauty. The Fourth Amended Complaint urges that TRPA has a unique moment in history to reverse course, and to reclaim its past role as a vigorous champion and steward of Lake Tahoe's unique national heritage.