News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 23, 2002

PWIA Response to National Academies Report, "Oil in the Sea"

Contact:
Elinore Boeke, 202-721-1621
Brian Berry, 202-777-3524

The following statement may be attributed to Monita Fontaine, Executive Director of the Personal Watercraft Industry Association.

“Marine pollution is a concern to all Americans and we are proud of our industry’s efforts to produce one of the most environmentally friendly engines on the water today. Unfortunately, today’s report is based on old technology, and does not consider direct injection and four stroke engines. Modern personal watercraft with 75 percent fewer emissions have been sold since 1999.”

From “Oil in the Sea III:”
“…four-stroke engines and direct-injection two-stroke engines were not included in this analysis…” (p. 96) “To our knowledge there is no population data on the four-stroke engine population and the existing two-stroke population data does not differentiate between standard and DI engine types. Therefore we assume that all the two-stroke populations are standard models…” (appendix p. F-2)

“Our customers have already begun the process of embracing this cleaner, quieter technology, and we’ll be seeing more and more of these engines on the water in the coming years. Lake Tahoe has the strictest emissions requirements in the country, and it allows 27 models of personal watercraft.

“The authors admit the difficulty in estimating the relative sources of ‘consumption inputs.’ They note that the major source of petroleum to the marine environment is from runoff, but they cannot accurately estimate how that compares to inputs from recreational marine vehicles.”

From “Oil in the Sea III:”
“Because the vast majority of the consumption of petroleum occurs on land, rivers and waste- and storm-water streams represent the most significant source of petroleum to the marine environment. Another smaller, but still significant source, are two-stroke engines. …Unfortunately, the estimates for land-based sources of pollution are the most poorly documented, and the uncertainty associated with the estimates range over several orders of magnitude.” (p. 5)

“The personal watercraft industry has worked with the government to develop engine standards and cleaner, more efficient technology. Manufacturers of marine engines should be applauded for their remarkable advances in developing new technologies to address the concerns pointed to in the National Academies report.

“We agree with the report’s recommendation for further study to develop more accurate techniques for estimating the amount and sources of oil in our coastal waters, and for better coordination among federal agencies, in cooperation with academia and industry, to undertake new research aimed at discovering how petroleum releases affect the marine environment.”