News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 6, 2002

PWIA Response to Deadline Extension at Eight NPS Recreation Areas

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

According to a 9/6/02 press release by the NPS, the National Park Service and Bluewater Network have executed an agreement to extend the September 15th deadline when PWC use would be banned in eight units of the national park system.

The following statement may be attributed to Jeff Ludwig, Regulatory Affairs Manager of the Personal Watercraft Industry Association:

“We are pleased that these parks will remain open to PWC through the remainder of the boating season. It is unfortunate that the thirteen parks closed in April are not part of this extension. We welcome scrutiny of our technology and reassert that modern personal watercraft are among the most environmentally friendly motorized vessels on the water today. We will continue to work with state and federal policy makers and law enforcement agencies to adopt and enforce reasonable regulation for all motorized vessels, including personal watercraft.

"The environmental assessments and impact studies should be conducted meticulously, so that the park managers are not scrutinized by the anti-boating community once the review and rule-making process is complete and the parks reopen to personal watercraft."

# # #

Deadline extended to November 6th in the following parks:
Amistad NRA (TZ)
Bighorn Canyon NRA (MT)
Chickasaw NRA (OK)
Curecanti NRA (CO)
Glen Canyon NRA (UT/AZ)
Lake Meredith NRA (TZ)
Lake Roosevelt NRA (WA)

Deadline extended to January 1, 2003 in the following park:
Lake Mead NRA (NV)

More information on personal watercraft is available at www.pwia.org.