Boating Industry Seeks to Slow Tahoe's Water Scooter Restrictions

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE — On any summer weekend, upward of a hundred fun-loving souls take to the scenic reaches of Lake Tahoe on high-powered water scooters for some thrills and spills.

But the crystal waters of Tahoe suffer because of it.

Water scooters--dubbed personal watercraft by marine manufacturers and known as Jet Skis by most everyone else--are among the worst polluters around. In a two-hour ride, one of the vehicles typically dumps three gallons of unburned gas and oil into the drink.

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, the bi-state group that acts as a steward for the lake, has given water scooters until June 1 to clean up their act. The boating industry is challenging that in federal court.

Eager to make the lawsuit go away, members of the Tahoe planning agency's 14-member board next week will consider a request by the industry to temporarily relax the prohibitions for some craft.

As it now stands, machines powered by two-stroke engines with standard carburetors will be barred from the lake. Only avant garde machines, vastly less polluting and just now hitting the marketplace, would be permitted.

"The waters of Lake Tahoe are so clear, it's pretty stunning to think about literally thousands of gallons of toxic materials like gas and oil going into it," said John Marshall, the Tahoe planning agency's legal counsel. "With cleaner technology now at hand, it seems reasonable to say, 'Let's get those dirtier engines off the lake. Let's preserve this resource.' "

Lake Tahoe's restrictions are emblematic of the sort of opposition water scooters face all over the Golden State.

The machines have been banned at the Monterey Bay marine sanctuary because they disturbed sea life. In San Francisco, they can't operate within 1,200 feet of the shoreline, mostly because of noise gripes. Meanwhile, several reservoirs around the state have adopted prohibitions because of concerns about the cancer-causing effects of gas and oil additives in drinking water.

But the battle is doubtlessly the fiercest at Tahoe, where the world-renowned clarity of the lake's waters has begun to suffer in recent decades. The get-tough rules are the product of more than three years of wrangling among environmentalists, boat manufacturers and others.

Personal watercraft are the fastest-growing segment of the boating world, accounting for a third of all sales. About 200,000 of the water scooters are sold nationwide, ringing up $1.4 billion annually.