Hamilton Pool Closed To Swimming While Officials Explore Safety Enhancements

AUSTIN, TX -- Hamilton Pool will continue to be closed to swimming until county officials can determine ways of enhancing safety at the site following recent drownings there.

Dan Perry of the Travis County Parks department told the Austin American-Statesman the popular, naturally fed pool will eventually reopen, although they don't have a specific start date. The preserve surrounding the pool will remain open for hiking and backpacking, he told the Statesman.

“Right now we don’t know what has caused this little rash of incidents,” he told the newspaper. “Being a natural formation, there may or may not be things that we can do.”

There have been two drownings at the pool in as many months. In mid-August, a teenager from Harker Heights drowned there after he submerged in the water but failed to resurface. And on Oct. 2, a 20-year-old man, a native of Mexico, also drowned there under similar circumstances.

Local officials are seemingly at a loss to explain the two drownings and other incidents that have taken place at Hamilton Pool. The powerful storms over the summer changed the dynamics of many area waterways, with higher water levels and an abundance of debris from the rain.

In the most recent drowning, officials noted the silt disturbed by the throngs descending on the place made underwater visibility poor, frustrating divers' efforts to locate the most recent drowning victim.

“Basically what we are doing is trying to get with some other water professionals to find out what’s going on — to see if there is a trend going on with the incidents or see if there is anything we can do to make the area safer for the public," Perry told the Statesman.

>>> Read the full story at Austin American-Statesman

Image via Travis County