Closing to motorboats one day a weekend, not a bad idea for other
places. But they are already complaining. Well, the happy polluting
family can alway get their big fat arse on a kayak...


Rough water ahead for motorboats

Amanda Fehd
June 22, 2005
A proposal to close Emerald Bay to private motorboats for one day each
weekend in July and August because of exhaust pollution has boating
enthusiasts asking a lot of questions.

The plan is part of shorezone requirements that have been 15 years in
the making by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, which regulates
environmental policies at the lake.

Largely overlooked, the issue could become more controversial as the
agency prepares to approve its final shorezone regulation - a decision
repeatedly delayed because there hasn't been consensus.

Research has found high levels of exhaust pollution in the bay - the
same pollution that significantly decreased in other areas of the lake
after the agency banned two-stroke engines in 1998.

Emerald Bay has become a hot spot of carcinogens and mutagens produced
by fuel combustion, said Colleen Shade, chief of the planning and
evaluation team for the agency.

The watercraft community sees the move as another means to chip away at
the rights of boaters on the lake, who fought a long battle when the
ban on two-stroke engines was proposed and eventually passed.

"The theory in the boating community is that they hope to eventually
ban power boats altogether in Lake Tahoe," said Ron Williams, owner of
a 76-fleet power boat rental company, Tahoe Keys Boat Rental. He spent
$200,000 converting his jet ski inventory to four stroke when the
two-stroke ban took place.

Agency spokeswoman Julie Regan acknowledged there is a demand for areas
in the lake to be non-motorized, but said the "TRPA has no interest in
banning all motorized watercraft on the lake.

"We understand that boating has an important history here, and that
it's always been a part of life on Lake Tahoe."

But Williams said he's starting to see a pattern in how the agency
handles problems.

"The TRPA likes to arbitrarily take away rights from the citizens and
the community and a lot of times, they come up with these half-baked
ideas," Williams said.

"Rights come with responsibility," said Regan. "We have a duty to
encourage recreation that is environmentally sustainable. You can love
a place (like Emerald Bay) to death. You can ruin a resource if you
don't manage it correctly."

Tour boats such as the M.S. Dixie would still have free reign in the
bay under the proposals. The paddlewheelers are already heavily
monitored, said Regan. In addition, the closure would not affect
canoes, kayaks, and sailboats.

Implementation is a long way off, said Regan. The TRPA Governing Board
would have to vote on the document and the earliest pilot project would
be next summer.

http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/art...News/106220028