Posted: Sat, 29 May 2010 09:37 PM - 13,260 Readers

By: Andrew Horansky

Austin police are now cracking down on noisy boaters.  Along Lake Austin, they have begun giving warnings and writing tickets.  A new noise ordinance went into effect earlier this year.

“If I can hear your music or any amplified sound within a hundred feet of your boat, you are in violation,” said Officer John Scott with the Austin Police Department.  “The first time we are going to give you a warning.  The second time you are going to be cited.”

Some boaters wondered how well the law can be applied in instances where boats are bunched together.

“They’ll try to pinpoint the boat the sound is coming from,” one boater told KVUE.  “But if there are forty boats out there, which one will they ticket?” 

 Police say in recent years the loudest part of Lake Austin has been a cove known as Bee Creek, which Officer Scott describes as a boat parking lot.  He says between 200 and 300 boats can be there on a busy summer day. 

“Everyone plays their stereo so it kind of gets carried away,” he says.  “We have people with noise complaints in Westlake, which is two miles from the lake.”

Along Bee Creek, some homeowners have put up signs threatening to call police on loud boats.  One man says his windows rattle.

“It gets really loud down here and it all echoes,” said resident Antony VanWisse.  “It’s a nuisance.”

Police say the problem might have been worse last year when more boaters came over from a dry Lake Travis.

Seven APD officers with 3 boats are responsible for safety along the 20-miles of Lake Austin.