Austin residents enjoy Lake Austin, officials ban motorized personal watercraft over Fourth of July weekend

Personal watercraft banned on Lake Austin

Austin police say they will be enforcing the personal watercraft ban on Lake Austin over the Fourth of July weekend. They say the ban is necessary for keeping everyone safe.

AUSTIN, Texas - People are out enjoying the lakes to kick off Fourth of July weekend.

Mark Sherwinsky, president of rental business Greenbelt Outdoors, says it's definitely a busy time, and people like to enjoy the cool water on Lake Austin near Mansfield Dam.

"It's like 65 degree water that's coming from the bottom of Lake Travis, so that's great when people are like, it's 105 degrees out and want to get cool," he said.

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Sherwinsky says low lake levels in the area don't really affect the number of people coming in.

"I would say it probably increases our capacity here in terms of demand coming in, because Lake Travis is so low... they dropped down Mansfield Dam temporarily because of low lake levels, and Lady Bird Lake, you're getting all that seaweed, algae kind of exposing through the bottom of the lake so those low waters are affected there, however over here on Lake Austin, it really isn't an issue," he said.

Austin Police say they will be enforcing the personal watercraft ban over the Fourth of July. The ban is necessary for keeping everyone safe. This only applies to Lake Austin and goes into effect Monday at sunset and ends Wednesday at sunrise. Anything non-motorized like kayaks and paddleboards are still allowed.