News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 9, 2003

Personal Watercraft Permanently Allowed on Lake Mead

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

Washington, DC—Effective immediately, personal watercraft (PWC) users may enjoy Lake Mead National Recreation Area without fear of having their recreational choices limited at a manmade lake created in part for boating recreation.

A National Park Service (NPS) notice in today’s Federal Register announced the Final Rule, which “authorizes the use of PWC at Lake Mead National Recreation Area consistent with the Record of Decision for Lake Management Plan.”

According to the Federal Register notice, “continued use of PWC in 95% of Lake Mead” is permitted. “Five percent of the park waters will be managed for primitive and semiprimitive recreational settings… PWC use is prohibited in primitive and semiprimitive zones.”

Kirsten Rowe, executive director of the Personal Watercraft Industry Association, was satisfied with the rule. “Lake Mead conducted site-specific studies on personal watercraft effects on air, water, and soundscapes, and discovered what we’ve long known: that personal watercraft have no unique impact on the environment of a lake that allows motorized boating, and are an appropriate form of recreation for public waterways like Lake Mead.”

Bluewater Network, the anti-boating group that filed a lawsuit in April 2000 to require that a study of PWC impacts be done, has already announced its intent to again sue the National Park Service because it disagrees with Lake Mead’s conclusion that personal watercraft use is appropriate in the National Recreation Area.

“They’re running back to court because they don't like the results of the scientific studies brought about by their own lawsuit?,” asked Rowe. “Personal watercraft manufacturers have made amazing technological advances to make their vessels cleaner and quieter—a fact acknowledged by National Park Service scientists and others, but ignored by Bluewater because it doesn’t fit with their extreme agenda.”

Continued Rowe, “Americans footed the bill for Bluewater’s first lawsuit and for the objective studies required by the settlement of that litigation. At a time when our nation is facing difficult economic times and the National Park Service has the increased burden of keeping America’s precious places safe, I fear that these people intend to keep reaching into taxpayers’ pockets until they get the results they want.”

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