Re: Coasties and Inland Waterways
The US Coast Guard goes where ever there is Federal jurisdiction. This includes all coastal waters and rivers navigable from the sea, all lakes that cross state boundaries (like lake Tahoe. by the way I have been to the station there. It is a great place to be assigned) and historical routes of commerce. That last can be a route that only a canoe can navigate. A good example is the upper Hudson to Lake Champlain.
Years ago when I first signed up (1965) there were units called BOSDETS (Boating Safety Detachments) that had trailerable boats and they went to all of the lakes in their district that were federal jurisdiction. The Colorado river from where it leaves the US, up stream to the north end of lake Powell is federal jurisdiction. Flaming Gorge is too, and so is Bear lake on the Utah idaho border. the list goes on and on. Unfortunately the BOSDETS were disbanded in the early 80's. Now you will likely only see regular CG units on high profile areas such as Lake Mead, Lake Powell, Tahoe. The Parker strip was patrolled by the USCG for many years. In fact it had it's own CG unit for many years. But along with the BOSDETS it went the way of the dinosaurs.
However, you will see USCG Auxiliary anywhere. Jurisdiction is not an issue with the CGAUX because they have no law enforcement authority. I was a director of auxiliary in Utah for several years, we had flotillas on all the lakes in the region.
Oh yeah, it has nothing to do with protection of dams. There is a separate Federal agency tasked with that. The CG will assist them when requested. But if you see the USCG on inland waterways they are there for a lot of reasons, but mostly it's the traditional tasks, law enforcement, search and rescue, boating safety, and aids to navigation on major rivers (Mississippi, Ohio, Missouri; what are called western rivers in the COLREGS.)
