Authorities, businesses target alcohol abuse on water

~ A campaign encourages boaters to designate a sober driver.

OSAGE BEACH, Mo. -- For the Memorial Day weekend revelers at Party Cove, the warning sirens, flashing emergency lights and divers searching for the third drowning victim in a week only briefly halted the good times.

Women in bikinis, some topless, continued to dance suggestively from atop their power boat perches. Floating vendors cruised the infamous Lake of the Ozarks party spot selling inflatable sex dolls and other X-rated supplies. At every turn, empty beer cans and discarded cigarettes bobbed on the surface.

The no-holds-barred scene at Party Cove -- technically known as Anderson Hollow Cove near the Grand Glaize Bridge -- has helped make Lake of the Ozarks one of the Midwest's top summer getaways, drawing visitors from Kansas City, St. Louis, Des Moines, Chicago and beyond.

Yet the alcohol-fueled excesses in one corner of the sprawling lake have some boosters fearful that the tolerant approach to public drunkenness could wind up tarnishing the place tourism types tout as "mid-America's premier vacation, golf and fishing destination."

"It's the last of the wide-open frontiers," said Maj. Jody Hughes of the Missouri Water Patrol.

Statistically, the lake is one of the most dangerous bodies of water in the country.

In 2006, the lake accounted for more than 73 percent of all drunken boating arrests by the water patrol, and more than half of all boating accidents statewide.

Fifty alcohol-related accidents were tallied last year, the most in nearly a decade. Ten people died on the lake in 2006. This year, just days into the peak season for water recreation in Missouri, three have already lost their lives.

The most recent victim was Robert Siatka, 28, of Bartlett, Ill., who dove into Party Cove the Saturday before Memorial Day to retrieve a pair of sunglasses. His body was found floating in the area two days later.

The deadly weekend came just as lake business owners and tourism officials unveiled a new public awareness campaign intended to curtail excessive drinking on the water.

The campaign -- labeled "Think Before You Sink" -- encourages boaters to designate a sober driver. The message is being delivered on highway billboards, flashing message boards and posters at public docks, private marinas and waterfront bars throughout the region.

"This body of water is what makes the lake a destination," said Trisha Creach, executive director of the Lake Area Chamber of Commerce and a member of the new water safety council. "Lake safety is a major issue."

Council members also pushed state lawmakers to support a bill to lower the legal definition of boating while intoxicated to a 0.08 blood-alcohol content from the current 0.10 level. The lower threshold -- which didn't advance in the legislature -- would have made the boating law consistent with the legal limit for Missouri drivers.

"If they're too drunk to drive on the road, they're too drunk to drive on the water," said Lt. Nick Humphrey, a veteran Missouri Water Patrol officer who helped lobby for the change.

Humphrey credited several recent changes in state law that have made Missouri waterways in general and Lake of the Ozark in particular safer, including an increase in boat registration fees and required boating safety courses for licensed operators born after Jan. 1, 1984.

But with 55,000 miles of waterways and 1,150 miles of shoreline to patrol, Humphrey and his colleagues know they face an uphill battle.

"We've got 16 patrol officers to cover more shoreline than the state of California," officer Dustin Metzner said while patrolling Party Cove. "And that's spread over two shifts."

Faced with a summer that could wind up being one of the deadliest on record at the lake, water patrol officers said they welcomed the business community's efforts to encourage more responsible drinking in a place one magazine touted as "a Greek kegger meets a Roman orgy."

"All we can do is try to educate," Humphrey said. "What's the alternative?"