Curbing Jet Craft

Sun., Oct. 19, 1997

Staff And Wire Reports

Water sports

The California-Nevada Tahoe Regional Planning Agency plans to ban all two-stroke marine engines from the Tahoe Basin within the next few years.

The decision was made ostensibly for environmental reasons, but also as a method of ridding the area of menacing personal watercraft.

Two-stroke marine engines emit clouds of smoke and release considerable amounts of oil into the water in which they run.

Perhaps the worse polluters are personal watercraft, which have a reputation for noise and mischief that makes them the black sheep of the boating fraternity.

Problem is, the ban also affects many anglers and cabin dwellers who can’t afford to replace two-stroke engines with more expensive and somewhat less efficient four-stroke models on their small boats.

One marina owner opposes the ban for several reasons, not the least of which is that he may be stuck with $100,000 worth of useless outboard engines, parts and tools.

Sales of two-stroke motors have already dried up, he said.

The ban is set to go into effect in either June 1999 or March 2000. , DataTimes

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