Posted: Sun, 9 Aug 2009 05:09 PM - 7,260 Readers

By: Bonnie Gonzalez

Lower Colorado River Authority Ranger Jerome Brooks' job is to cruise Lake Travis in search of rule breakers or hazardous obstacles.

Brooks is in the business of keeping lake-goers safe, and where his job used to entail a lot of the basics, like making sure people have life jackets on board, he has more to be wary of these days. Low lake levels have a lot to do with the change.

"I could look just straight across. You can't even see on the other side. It just looks like one huge landmass now. You know it's unbelievable," Brooks said.

Low lake levels mean new surfaces, and in some cases, new islands.

"To accommodate the lake levels going down, marinas have tried to find deeper water. So what they're doing is they're pushing marinas out of the coves in to deeper portions of the lake," Brooks said.

That puts marinas closer to the main channel where boats cruise through. Buoys mark the deepest part of the water, but falling water levels add unnecessary slack to their tethered lines and cause them to move out of place.

"Sometimes that takes them a little close to shore and that poses a problem at night when the only thing you actually have out here sometimes is that buoy with the beacon on top," Brooks said.

At Lake Austin, buoys and marinas are the least of worries. Rather, public safety officials have their attention focused on the influx of traffic.

"There's definitely been some increase. It's not probably a gigantic hazardous increase, but it is definitely an increase," Austin Police Officer Jeff Joseph said.

Joseph patrols the lake, and says if you stick with the basics, accidents are preventable.

"You're going to want to wear your life jacket at all times. Avoid alcohol if you can, and control your speed, and that takes care of pretty much everything," he said.

At Lake Travis, Brooks said the same thing, as boaters wait for Mother Nature to make the lake a little safer.

"Nothing can solve it but rain," Brooks said.

*  Story Contributed by: Bonnie Gonzalez