Tattle Tale

Look. Look at this! I said to Trudy sitting next to me on the sand by the water in the breeze under the dappled shade of the Willow tree. We stared in disbelief as a man poured oil on the sand around his towels to keep the ants away.

...

My heart was racing as I flagged down the LCRA pickup truck. The security guard behind the wheel rolled down the window.

I don't know if you can do anything about this. I don't know if you even want to, but I have to tell you...

She listened to me and looked over the the picnic table in the distance. She asked a few questions to confirm what I had said.

I will call the ranger, she said as she picked up her radio.

...

When I got out of the pickup truck, the ranger walked up to me. He was holding a radio, a clipboard, a pen, a driver's license and the yellow plastic oil container. Clearly it was too many things to hold, since the container was upside down and drops of black oil were dripping out of it onto the ground.

Here, I said, and I took the container from his hand and turned it right side up.

He thanked me and set it on the ground by his feet.

What did you see? he asked. I told him.

Who was it you saw? he asked. I told him.

He gave me some papers to fill out and said he would come by later.

...

It was late. It was dark. The truck stopped. The ranger got out.

Well, he said. I don't think he'll be back any time soon. He's probably pretty frightened. I told him he could be arrested. That close to the water, it's a federal Clean Water Act violation.

I handed him my written statement.

If you need any more information, you can call me, he said as he handed me his card. We'll do what we can, he said in an optimistic tone. Then he added, Keep in mind that this is Llano County. Don't get me wrong, I love it here. I moved here from Austin. But this is Llano County.

We wrote them a ticket for having glass bottles on the beach. At least that will stick.

...

It rained that night. Thunderstorms rolled out of the west several hours before dawn and dropped torrents of water on the park as we slept.

Certainly by morning the oil was washed into the lake.

---
Blackrock Park, Lake Buchanon, TX

11:45:40 AM   permalink: []   feedback:   comments: []