Jet Crafts Face Water Sport Regulations

The friction between personal watercraft users and everybody else is grinding through courts and local governments in several states.

In January, commissioners from Washington’s San Juan County banned use of personal watercraft, contending that they posed potential dangers to the public and could harm marine life and tourism.

Personal watercraft industry groups have countered with a lawsuit arguing that the ban is “impermissibly vague and ambiguous.”

Other Washington counties have banned use of the vessels in specific areas, but none has taken action as sweeping as San Juan County.

Spokane County has no specific regulations on personal watercraft, said Tom Mattern, Sheriff’s department marine deputy. “We get as many complaints about motor boats as we do jet skis,” he said. “But jet skis are selling four-to-one over boats, I guess, so I don’t know where this will go.”

In Idaho, however, a 1994 survey found personal watercraft to be the No. 1 concern among the state’s recreational boaters.

Legislation was introduced this year to allow local goverments to restrict their use from certain areas.

The jet-propelled craft, capable of 60 mph, are being being banned or restricted to eliminate potentially dangerous user conflicts - not to mention outright fistfights - with boaters, fishermen, swimmers and windsurfers.

In California, the problem was addressed in 1989 when the state attorney general’s office issued an opinion that local governments had the power to enact local boating ordinances. Immediately, bans on personal watercrafts started being announced in most parts of the state.

The first major action was in Pacifica, the coastal town south of San Francisco, where personal watercrafts were banned in the surf zone along five miles of beachfront in order to protect surfers, swimmers and fishing conditions.

In other places, including dozens of lakes in the Tahoe National Forest, local ordinances limit boat speeds to 5 or 10 mph, resulting in a tacit ban on personal watercrafts without a political confrontation.

Another solution has been to designate specific areas of a lake or bay for personal watercraft use while banning them elsewhere.

About 700,000 personal watercraft are in use in the United States, with 142,000 sold in 1994. Washington has about 17,000 registered owners.The Coast Guard says 34 people were killed in accidents involving personal watercraft in 1994, up from 22 deaths in 1993.

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