The water levels at several lakes throughout Cass County are higher than usual due to the inordinate amount of rainfall this year.

This creates issues for homes built near the shoreline — especially those without a sizeable seawall. For those homes, sizeable wakes can easily reach the shoreline, eroding it and even damaging homes. To combat this, some residents have resorted to creating and displaying signs stating that the sheriff has banned wakes in certain areas and on certain lakes.

“Juno Lake, near Edwardsburg, had a sign at its public access saying, ‘no wake per the sheriff,”’ said Cass County Sheriff Rick Behnke. “Then Coverdale Lake, down near Porter Township, had a similar sign on the lake on a buoy. The sheriff does not have the capabilities to enforce that or make those restrictions on a lake at this time.”

Behnke said that residents should contact his office if they see any signs that restrict wakes on his behalf. That way, he can address the issue. Otherwise, additional lake associations will call the sheriff’s office to request similar signs.

“We don’t have the ability to enforce that,” Behnke said. “So we don’t want to give the false impression that we can.”

According to the sheriff, the only person who can restrict wakes and waves on the lake is the governor, which he would have to do through a disaster declaration, something he has not done.

There are some lake associations in southwest Michigan that decided to create signs to ban wakes, but again, Behnke said that those are not legally enforceable.

“It’s more of a neighborly way to take care of the situation,” he said. “The problem is people are coming who aren’t part of the lake, and whether they will follow that or not is another issue.”

He said that over the last few years, wakes have gotten worse due to wake boats, which create wakes so large that people can ski or wakeboard behind them without a rope. This type of boat is also appealing because its wakes are more advantageous to jump over and off of.

“It’s been a big concern because we have some lakes that aren’t very large and a sweep [of waves] can create a lot of situations,” he said. “Unfortunately, there is no law against having them on the lakes. We encouraged laws to be passed that those boats can only be used on larger lakes. Right now, they can be used on any lake that has a boat access, and doesn’t have [an enforceable] no wake law or rule attached to it.”

No wake laws are typically only attached to fishing lakes, Behnke said. The impact large wakes can have to a homeowner’s property is typically not a reason to have such a law.

“We have several lakes that are less than 200-acre lakes that don’t have wake laws on them,” he said. “So they can use any type of boats on them. When the water levels get this high, just driving over the lake can create issues.”