Rules Seek Local Control Of Personal Watercraft New Park Service Regulations Are Expected In Place By Late October

The National Park Service is developing new rules to make it easier for local park officials to ban personal watercraft such as Jet Skis.

With the growing popularity of such craft, there has been concern among many park superintendents about their impact on the tranquility and natural resource of parks. With only a few exceptions, there is no prohibition on Jet Ski use within the federal park system.

A proposal that is expected to get final approval by late October would direct local park officials to determine the “appropriateness” of Jet Ski use and restrict their use or ban them altogether if necessary.

“This is not a total ban,” emphasized Dennis Burnett, the agency’s program manager for regulation. “It will establish a procedure for park superintendents to make a determination of appropriateness for these vehicles in their park areas.”

Burnett said Friday there are 34 park areas - many of them recreational areas - where currently individual watercraft such as Jet Skis are widely used and acceptable including such places as Lake Mead near Las Vegas and the Lake Powell recreation area of southern Utah.

“We see no reason for that to change. This regulation is not going to shut these areas down,” said Burnett, adding that many of these facilities were specifically established for recreational marine use.

But under the regulation, local park superintendents even in those areas would examine he crafts’ uses and presumably could impose some restraints.

Conservation groups have argued for years that the Park Service should slap controls on the use of motorized craft in parks that were created primarily for natural resource protection and their wilderness value.

“These places were set aside to protect their natural condition, their tranquility and their silence,” said Kevin Collins, a spokesman for the private National Parks and Conservation Association. At times, “you have a conflict of user groups.”

With the growing popularity of Jet Skis and similar small individual watercraft - 1.2 million are now in use and sales are running at 200,000 a year - federal park officials have become increasingly concerned about the impact on the parks.

Currently, local park officials have few tools to control the use of such craft, said Burnett. “National parks are supposed to be special places and they can’t be all things to all people,” he said.

Conflicts over Jet Ski use have erupted at a number of parks, including Olympic National Park, the Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota and Canyonlands National Park in Utah.