Small Crafts Criticized

Sun., Aug. 8, 1999

Staff

Water sports

Sentiment against personal watercraft is growing almost as fast as the skyrocketing sales of the small jet-boats.

Although some individual parks and areas have already imposed bans on personal watercraft, the National Park Service is considering a proposal to ban the machines from 356 of the 378 national parks.

Service officials endorsed the move in May, but the rules still need formal backing from the Secretary of the Interior and the Office of Management and Budget.

Aside from the noise and high percentage of boating accidents attributable to personal watercraft, they are major polluters.

The Sierra Club claims that in seven hours of operation, a standard personal watercraft belches as much air pollution as a 1998 automobile will emit in 100,000 miles.

The Izaak Walton League of America, says two-stroke engines leak 165 million gallons of oil into America’s waters each year - 15 times the amount released by the Exxon Valdez in its 1989 spill.

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