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EDITOR’S NOTE: With the close of the summer Lake Michigan swimming season the question of how to prevent lake drownings remains unanswered. In a two-part series, reporter Kevin Nevers examines the complex interagency beach safety issue. Today: Warnings and Signs. By KEVIN NEVERS According to the records of the Porter County Coroner’s Office, since 1995 at least 11 persons have drowned off the beaches at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore (INDU). Five of the victims were children, average age 14. Of those 11 drownings, 10 occurred at one of the six unguarded beaches at INDU: six of them at Porter Beach, three at Kemil Beach, and one at Lakeview Beach. The other drowning occurred at the only guarded beach at INDU, West Beach, but—the National Park Service says—after the lifeguards had gone off duty for the day. At least six of the 11 drownings the Coroner explicitly associated with rip currents, including the drownings this summer of two Chicago boys, the first on July 13 at Kemil Beach, the second on Aug. 3 at Porter Beach. Anecdotal evidence further indicates that in all six of these cases the victims had previously left the guarded beach at Indiana Dunes State Park (IDSP), after dangerous conditions had prompted the lifeguards there to close it to swimming, and gone to an unguarded beach at INDU. Only one of the 11 victims was a resident of Porter County, that one a 19-year-old Valparaiso man. The other 10 were all residents of Illinois, six of them of Chicago. Conceivably some or all of those 10 were unaccustomed to swimming in Lake Michigan and knew little of the perils posed by rip currents, high waves, and drop-offs. Seven of the 11 were Mexican, Puerto Rican, or Korean and their ability to read English-only warning signage is unknown. It’s important to note that the presence of lifeguards does not itself guarantee swimmers’ safety. Apparently the only drowning recorded at IDSP during this 13-year period, that of a 17-year-old Valparaiso boy in 2001, occurred while lifeguards were on duty. It’s also important to note that INDU is not the only NPS property with unguarded beaches. When, in August, Cape Hatteras National Seashore in North Carolina lost the lifeguards at its beach in Buxton to the beginning of school, “No Lifeguards On Duty” signage was posted but the beach remained open for swimming. In contrast, Gateway National Recreation Area in New York and New Jersey has for several years actually outright closed as many as five of the beaches at its Jacob Riis Park because funding was not available to hire lifeguards. This past summer U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., announced a federal earmark of $3 million for each of the next 10 years specifically to hire the lifeguards needed to open those beaches. Funding at INDU At various times in its 42-year history, all or some of the beaches at INDU have been guarded, at one point under contract. Now only West Beach is guarded and is therefore the only “swimming beach” officially designated as such in the INDU brochure, Superintendent Constantine Dillon said in a lengthy e-mail, in response to questions from the Chesterton Tribune. “That means we do not actively recommend or suggest swimming anywhere other than West Beach.” (The actual formulation on the INDU website—www.nps.gov/indu —is this: “Swimming is allowed at all beaches; only West Beach has lifeguards.” In the “Water Safety” section of the “Things To Know Before You Come” link, on the other hand, reference is made to rip currents and bacterial levels but not to unguarded beaches. There is an incentive to pay the $6 per day vehicle user fee at West Beach and swim in guarded waters: a 600-car parking lot. Parking is free at the unguarded beaches but very limited: 66 spaces at Porter Beach, for instance.) The problem at INDU, as at Gateway National Recreation Area, is funding, Dillon said. “Standards for beach lifeguards are that at least two lifeguards be on duty at all times. Lifeguards can only oversee a few hundred feet of beach per team and the amount of shore that can be safely patrolled diminishes as conditions worsen and/or crowds increase. It would therefore be impractical, as well as prohibitively expensive, to have lifeguards on 12 miles of NPS beach.” INDU does hire a “variety” of seasonal employees during the summer and tasks them to perform a range of duties: resource management, maintenance, and education. Dillon declined to specify the number of these employees but did say that hiring fewer of them in order to hire more lifeguards is not a viable option, as doing so would create an imbalance in the overall range of programs and services offered at INDU. “The primary responsibility of the National Park Service is to preserve and protect the natural and cultural resources of the park and we must always balance this responsibility with providing other services. We try to balance all the park needs within the budget we have and it is not simply a factor of replacing one kind of employee with another.” Even if funding were available, furthermore, certified lifeguards might not be. Even at the current rate of $13.85 per hour, Dillon noted, “we are unable to obtain a sufficient number of qualified applicants for our lifeguard jobs.” Well before Labor Day, moreover, those whom INDU did employ this past summer had returned to school—as they did at Cape Hatteras National Seashore, as they did too at IDSP—leaving West Beach unguarded on weekdays. For the record, the audit conducted in 2006 as part of a government-wide competitive sourcing program targeted 17 positions for elimination by September 2008 but in no way impacted lifeguard staffing, Dillon said. “All aspects of the park operations were reviewed in that process and visitor safety was an important consideration.” Also for the record, the Tribune asked U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-1st, these two questions: whether he has ever attempted to secure funding for INDU specifically to hire additional lifeguards? and whether he would make an effort now to secure an earmark sufficient to hire lifeguards at least for the beaches where the majority of the drownings have occurred, Porter Beach and Kemil Beach? Visclosky’s public relations staffer e-mailed the following response to those questions: “Lifeguards are an operating expense and earmarks are meant for capital expenses. Congressman Visclosky has been able to secure earmarks for capital expenses at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore for things like land acquisition, beach nourishment, and Camp Good Fellow, but cannot do so for operating expenses. To address the lifeguard issue, (INDU) should work with the National Park Service and the operating budget.” Signage at INDU If budget constraints preclude INDU from hiring additional lifeguards, would it be feasible instead to assign NPS rangers, when swimming conditions are hazardous, to close the beaches or otherwise clear the water? Dillon answered the question in this way: INDU is comprised of 15,177 acres, 120 miles of boundary, 45 miles of trails, “uncounted” miles of roads, six picnic areas, a 79-site campground, more than 225 known archaeological sites, and a “range of fens, bogs, marshes, creeks, woodlands, prairies, dunes, and beaches with rare and threatened species that must be protected.” And “at any given time,” Dillon said, “we have one to three rangers to cover all this plus the shoreline.” In all sorts of ways, then, INDU is stretched thin. It does have plenty of signage, though, and on that signage—as well as on the common sense of the visitors who read it—INDU largely relies to keep swimmers alive. “We cannot place signs warning of every danger at every site in the park,” Dillon said, “but we do attempt to place signs where we expect there is a high potential for risk and have placed signs at the shoreline wherever we maintain a parking lot. In some places these signs are in English and Spanish.” A sample of that signage: •“Lifeguards Not Provided” signs, in English and Spanish, are posted at the two beach access points at Porter Beach and Kemil Beach. •One “Danger: Rip Current” sign, in full color but in English only, with an explanation of rip currents and a diagram, is posted at beach access points at all of the unguarded beaches. On the reverse of that sign is a shelf-ice warning for winter use. •“Beach Regulations” signs posted at all of the unguarded beaches include a “Lifeguards Not Provided” message. These signs, in English only, are posted at parking areas and/or beach access points: three at Porter Beach, two at Kemil Beach, four at Lakeview Beach. •And a “Fun in the Sun” sign, in English and Spanish, is posted on or near comfort stations at all of the unguarded beaches. This sign warns visitors not to go in the water when bacterial levels are high, refers them to the (English-only) “Danger: Rip Current” sign, and urges swimmers “Never to go into the lake alone” because “You might step in a hole into water over your head.” One question asked by the Tribune Dillon did not directly answer: whether INDU could install new signage capable of alerting visitors to currently prevailing rip currents and warning them not to swim, along the lines of the signage posted elsewhere in the park advising of wildfire risk that day. “The National Park Service does not open or close beaches to swimming,” Dillon said, “but we strive to provide information that allows visitors to make informed decisions about their park activities. . . . We do our best to keep the public informed of conditions and safety information, but ultimately it is an individual’s decision as to what activity they have the ability to undertake.” “Visitors to national parks choose to climb mountains, raft rivers, explore caves, and engage in other activities at their risk,” Dillon added. “National parks are not a city park or state park; national parks are generally managed to allow natural processes to occur. The park is maintained as much in its natural state as feasible and to allow visitors to enjoy nature on its own terms.” Part Two Monday: Beach patrol — Not my beach, not my problem?
Posted 9/12/2008
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