Channeling danger

By OWEN BOSS

Drivers crossing the Connecticut River on the Coolidge Bridge generally obey rules of the road because they're wary of police vigilance.

Below them, though, people speeding through a no-wake zone on the river in a rented powerboat aren't required to have any boating experience or a state-issued boating license. And due to budget cuts and a recent regional consolidation, local Environmental Police say they are having a harder time than ever this summer enforcing regulations on the often rain-swollen river.

The combination of decreased enforcement and lax operating requirements, officials say, has created a crowded and often reckless environment on local reaches of the Connecticut - creating dangerous conditions for even the most seasoned boaters.

Inexperienced boaters

Paul Benjamin, a Hadley resident who regularly takes his 25-foot Crownline Cruiser out on the Connecticut, said he has witnessed inexperienced boaters causing problems on the river in the past.

Recently, when Benjamin took his boat out of the Oxbow, he saw people fishing from a boat parked under a nearby bridge, which can make navigating through the narrow corridor especially dangerous for larger watercraft.

"You are never supposed to block an active channel, and there are plenty of places to fish on the river," Benjamin said. "Where they were fishing forced people to go around them into one lane of oncoming traffic, and the problem is that people can't always see you coming - and boats don't have brakes."

Despite the unusually rainy summer, Benjamin said he has been seeing as much weekend traffic on the river as he has in years past. But he hasn't seen as much of the Environmental Police.

"I haven't seen them out there in weeks," Benjamin said. "I used to go down to the marina and have a reasonably good shot of seeing their boats patrolling out there on the river."

But when he travels south and crosses state lines into Connecticut, Benjamin said he regularly sees police in full force, monitoring the speed of boat traffic and checking to be sure boaters are properly licensed and have the necessary safety equipment.

"The times I've been on the lower Connecticut River near Hartford they have had both local police and state police down there at the mouth of the river and they are frequently on station, eyeballing all of the boats on the river."

Another area boater frustrated with a lack of police presence on the river is Steven Pratt, who launches his 28-foot Carver "Silver Beaches" from the Oxbow.

"There is an Environmental Police boat parked right over there, but I've never seen it move," Pratt said. "In my experience on the river I have never seen them out there."

Pratt, who hails from Michigan and notes he got his boating license when he was 12, said influxes of inexperienced boaters cruising the Connecticut on weekends make the waterway dangerous.

"It's such a narrow river and it can get pretty crowded on the weekends. It would be nice to see someone out there making sure people stay safe," Pratt said. "Basically when you see other people out there, you just obey the rules of the road. You watch them until you're sure which way they are going and you just point your boat the other way."

Not enough officers

Lt. Cameron Davis, who works in the Environmental Police's Montague office, said enforcing boating regulations on the Connecticut has become increasingly difficult over the last couple of years because the department has being losing funding and personnel.

In the past, Davis said, Environmental Police coverage of the state was divided into three law enforcement regions. Several years ago, the state consolidated two of those regions into one. Now, he said, because of budget cuts, eight officers must cover a area from Orange to Williamstown, south to Pittsfield and back east to the western edge of the Quabbin Reservoir in Belchertown.

"For all intents and purposes, the region we watch encompasses Franklin, Hampshire and half of Berkshire county, and in our geographical region we are short five officers," Davis said. "That is pretty challenging for us because we have a lot of duties."

Among the department's responsibilities, Davis said, are enforcing hunting and fishing regulations, monitoring the traffic of both boats and off-road vehicles, patrolling state parks and conducting search-and-rescue operations.

"There are eight of us covering that area, and we run two shifts a day, a morning shift and an evening shift. On any given day you have two or three officers with the day off and it becomes a matter of getting guys together," Davis said.

The Environmental Police has a patrol boat docked at Northampton's Oxbow Marina that is responsible for regularly patrolling the Connecticut. They alone have the power to issue tickets for safety infractions such as speeding, not wearing life jackets and operating under the influence of alcohol. The boat, however, is often berthed - and not out on the river.

Coast Guard Auxiliary

The only department he has seen patrolling the river, Pratt said, is the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, which can issue warnings and offer free inspections but does not have any law enforcement power over boaters.

Vice Commander Doug Taylor, of the auxiliary's Flotilla 93 out of Holyoke, said the lack of police presence this season has resulted in inexperienced boaters making dangerous decisions. They know the auxiliary has no law enforcement power, and are aware of a reduction in the Environmental Police presence.

"I think the general public is realizing that and taking advantage of it," Taylor said. "You get people out there with personal watercraft that have no regard for the rules of the road, and some of them are out there without life jackets on."

Recently, while watching a waterskiing competition at the entrance to the marina, Taylor said members of the Flotilla watched helplessly as boaters traveled through the paths of competitors, nearly hitting them as they passed.

"Whenever we would stop one boat, another one would come right around the corner and drive through the course," Taylor said. "We can jump on our radio and call the Environmental Police for support, but they just don't have anyone they can send us."

One of the most dangerous times on the river, Taylor said, is at night, when it becomes populated with canoes, kayaks and anchored boats, many of which he said do not use lights to alert other boats to their presence. "We regularly see people out there in kayaks and canoes in the pitch black without any lights on and there is no way for other people to see them," he said.

Connecticut's solution

Capt. Rick Lewis, of Connecticut's Environmental Conservation Police, said his state has responded to similar budget cuts and the loss of personnel to retirement by hiring seasonal police officers from other departments to help enforce environmental regulations.

"The last couple of years we have gotten members of town and state police to work for us part-time on a seasonal basis," Lewis said. "We have two officers on two patrol vessels out there five days a week and then several times during the summer we hold boating under the influence initiatives."

Without support from local and state police departments, Lewis said, completing all of the department's various duties would be impossible. "We have the same issues that Massachusetts does in terms of budgets and having people retire, but these officers give us a hand during the recreational season."

Operator requirements

Massachusetts and Maine are the only states in New England, and two of six in the nation, that do not require operators to complete a boating safety course before hitting the water. In all other states, to legally operate a boat, residents must complete an eight-hour training program in which they learn the basics of boating safety.

John Annino, head of boating education for the state of Connecticut, said state residents looking to acquire a boating license must pass a standardized course approved by the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators. That association sets educational standards for the country, he said.

"There is a 50-question test that requires that boaters know everything about life jackets, fueling safety, emergency preparedness and speed regulations," Annino said.

Although the test doesn't require any hands-on boating experience and can be completed online, applicants have to answer at least 80 percent of the questions correctly to pass it, Annino said. "There are about 10 or 12 questions specific to Connecticut law, but the rest are on regular boating safety, which are standard on tests in every other state."

In Massachusetts, any resident over the age of 18, regardless of boating experience, can rent a vessel and launch into the Connecticut, as long as they can provide a valid driver's license.

Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com.