DRUGS, ALCOHOL, 'FLASHING' STIR CONCERN ON WATERWAYS

Authorities Want to Curb Rowdiness, Bring Order into "the Middle of Nowhere."

Monday morning, the Niangua River flowed lazy and silent through
Bennett Springs State Park. A few anglers cast from the bank. Birds
sang.

But on a sunny summer Saturday, it's a different scene as 2,500 to
3,000 people swarm to the river for a day of floating.

"They beat their paddles on the water and on the sides of their
canoes. Some of them sing. Some of them yell. Lots of them yell," said
Alan Daniels, a senior agent with the Missouri Department of
Conservation. "It's generally a pretty noisy place."

And with the noise comes alcohol, drugs and rowdiness.

To help monitor a worsening situation, the Missouri Water Patrol, the
Missouri Department of Conservation and the Missouri Sheriff's
Association teamed up statewide to patrol the rivers they fear have
become lawless party destinations.

The thinking seems to be that "we're in the middle of nowhere, so
there's no rules," said Laclede County Sheriff Richard Wrinkle.

With signs posted at river access points and canoe outfitters and with
a constant weekend presence on the river, the three agencies aim to
prove that there are, indeed, rules in southwest Missouri. In the
area, the agencies will focus on the Niangua and Elk Rivers, where
signs warning of patrols have been posted since the Memorial Day weekend.

"It's going to be high-profile visibility. Visibility is everything.
We want people to see us, to know that we'll enforce the law," said
Water Patrol Capt. Jim Marlin.

But Chris Torrisi, safety and education chairman of Ozark Mountain
Paddlers, thinks the laws they should be enforcing aren't even on the
books yet - specifically laws discouraging littering such as
prohibitions on glass containers and requirements for trash bags in
canoes.

"At least that would get the trash out of the river. As far as drunk
people out of the river? Nah. I don't think they have the manpower or
the resources," he said. "I'd rather see them do something more
constructive."

Torrisi himself avoids the most popular rivers because, by his
estimate, at least 85 percent of the floaters are stumbling drunk.

It wasn't always so, said Daniels.

He was first stationed in the area in 1988. At that time, on a 20-mile
stretch of river, he'd check close to 100 fishing licenses.

But by the mid-1990s, he was checking only about 15 fishing licenses
on the same stretch of river.

Replacing the anglers were "the party barges, four or five canoes
strapped together. And the swearing, the drinking, smoking marijuana
openly, the, uh ... flashing, if you will," Daniels said. "And lots of
fights."

Arrests increased. In an eight-hour period in 1997, for example, the
Conservation Department arrested 75 people, more than 40 of them for
drug violations. It was a paperwork nightmare, Daniels said.

The department's seen meth, cocaine, Xanax, LSD and marijuana.
Officers routinely arrest minors in possession of alcohol. They break
up fights - like a 1997 battle involving 50 floaters swinging at each
other with canoe paddles.

Daniels would love to get the fishermen and the families back:
"They're less trouble," he said. "To be honest, they're just a lot
less trouble."

They're less trouble, and they don't chase away other paddlers, said
Bob Burns, owner of NRO Canoe Rental and Campground.

"This is our livelihood. This is how we make our living so we want to
protect our river. We want to get our families back. We don't want no
drugs on this river. We want to clean it up," he said.

And since Memorial Day, when the signs were posted, Burns already sees
a difference.

"I just can't praise (the three agencies) enough for what they're
doing," he said. "I'm seeing little tots running around my campground
where I used to have big college boys staggering around. I'm seeing
that already."

River Patrol officers like these will patrol rivers statewide to curb
drunkenness, drug use and other lawless behavior.