diff --git a/simgear/scene/material/mat.hxx b/simgear/scene/material/mat.hxx
index 2c4d7947..9b8ddb13 100644
--- a/simgear/scene/material/mat.hxx
+++ b/simgear/scene/material/mat.hxx
@@ -401,9 +401,9 @@ public:
                    (0 < tex_height) ? 1000.0f/tex_height : 1.0f);
   }
 
-  float get_parameter(const std::string& param) const
+  float get_parameter(const std::string& param, float defaultValue = (0.0F)) const
   {
-    return parameters->getFloatValue(param);
+    return parameters->getFloatValue(param, defaultValue);
   }
 
 protected:
diff --git a/simgear/scene/material/matlib.cxx b/simgear/scene/material/matlib.cxx
index bd2179b5..507b6e18 100644
--- a/simgear/scene/material/matlib.cxx
+++ b/simgear/scene/material/matlib.cxx
@@ -430,7 +430,7 @@ SGMaterialCache::Atlas SGMaterialLib::getMaterialTextureAtlas(SGVec2f center, co
                 water = 1.0;
             }
 
-            atlas.materialParams3->setElement(materialLookupIndex, osg::Vec4f(water, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0));
+            atlas.materialParams3->setElement(materialLookupIndex, osg::Vec4f(water, mat->get_parameter("waterline-start"), mat->get_parameter("waterline-end"), 0.0));
 
             // Similarly, there are specifically 7 textures that are defined in the materials that need to be passed into
             // the shader as an array based on the material lookup.