By Brian Argabright
The 830 Times
One week after it was closed, the Diablo East boat ramp has reopened for use by boaters.
Amistad National Recreation Area Superintendent Chris Ryan confirmed this morning that the boat ramp, located nearly 12 miles west of Del Rio at Lake Amistad, had been reopened as of 4 p.m. Tuesday afternoon. He said the ramp could be reopened after concrete and debris had been removed from submerged parts of the ramp.
“We removed concrete and several large boulders, about two and half feet by two feet, that probably fell from the canyon wall near the ramp,” Ryan said by phone this morning. “We usually have a Water Watch Wednesday on the official Amistad Facebook page, but we decided why wait until then and made the post Tuesday afternoon.”
Ryan cautioned that the left side of the ramp, the one closest to the canyon wall, was still not usable yet but added that the opened part of the ramp was wide enough to allow two boats to launch at the same time.
The ramp was initially closed the morning of Aug. 9 after low water levels made it unsafe for boats to launch. Kayaks and canoes could still be launched from the ramp, but motorized vessels were forced to launch from the Rough Canyon boat ramp, which is about 20 miles outside of Del Rio.
“Diablo East was closed for safety reasons. We didn’t want people to damage their boats,” Ryan said. “We know Diablo East is very important to local businesses, but we still were able to use the Rough Canyon ramp, and having at least one boat ramp was better than none. We did have electronic signs posted that warned the public there that there would be a wait time to launch at Rough Canyon.”
More good news is expected at Lake Amistad in regards to the water levels.
While Del Rio received nearly an inch of rain Monday, ending a recent dry spell, areas west of the lake received a much greater amount of precipitation. That rain has filled up dry creek beds and is sending water towards the lake.
“We are anticipating that the heavier rains that were west of us are headed our way. It usually takes a day or two, but we anticipate the lake levels will rise,” Ryan said. “Additionally, the amount of water being released for irrigation down stream has decreased and should remain like that for some time. So during a hot day it may evaporate about a half inch of water a day, but we shouldn’t have drastic changes in the lake level.”
With the lower lake levels comes the opportunity for workers at the ANRA to make repairs and clear debris from areas of the lake that had been deeper underwater in the past. The area around the Diablo East boat ramp was no exception, and Ryan said work crews had their hands full with some recent discoveries.
“We encountered several large containers that were underwater. These were several feet long and I’ve been told that they were used to ship T-38 engines to Laughlin. These may have been used at other reservoirs as well as people probably got a hold of them from the air force and filled them up with rocks and used them as anchors for boat docks,” Ryan said. “We removed two yesterday (Tuesday) and have removed four within the last month. There are three more we have to remove. We don’t know how long they have been in the lake.”
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