Ban on Jet Skis looms at Lake Tahoe; company offers new guarantee

Friday, May 28, 1999 | 5:11 a.m.

INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. - This Memorial Day weekend is the last time most Jet Ski enthusiasts can tear across Lake Tahoe. Effective Tuesday, most personal watercraft will be banned because of concerns about water pollution.

"The lake belongs to the people. But when the health of the lake is at stake, we must balance personal recreation with ensuring the preservation of Lake Tahoe's beauty for generations to come," said Jim Baetge, executive director of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, which worked more than two years to impose the ban.

Some personal watercraft have been adapted and will still be allowed on the lake, but the rules at Tahoe and elsewhere in tough air pollution standards across California are already having an effect.

Stung by a sharp in sales, Mercury Marine, a major boat maker, is offering a money-back "Technology Guarantee" that certain of its engines meet California's tough new air standards.

The move comes in response to new air quality rules in California aimed at sharply cutting pollutants from new two-stroke and four-stroke marine engines, including outboards, beginning in 2001.

"Our dealers are feeling the pinch," Mercury Marine spokesman Phil Esposito said from corporate headquarters in Fond du Lac, Wis.

"People just aren't buying carbueretted two strokes. We have seen dealers whose outboard sales have fallen off by half to two-thirds, in some cases," he said.

He declined to give specific dollar figures - either in losses to dealers or in how much the new program would cost Mercury.

"'Softening' is too gentle a term. My understanding is that across the board these sales have all but dried up completely," Esposito said.

The California rules apply to engines used in many motor boats, Jet Skis, small, lightweight jet boats and small fishing boats. Inboard engines are exempt from the regulations.

Mercury's new guarantee applies to the low-emission four-stroke and the direct-injection two-stroke outboard engines.

The new California rules, which are far more stringent than federal anti-pollution standards, take effect first with engines built in 2001. Then they'll be tightened in stages through 2008, when engines should be 90 percent less polluting than they are today, according to the Air Resources Board.

In addition to concern about air pollution, California and Nevada officials on both sides of Lake Tahoe blame personal watercraft for dumping fuel and oil, contributing to Tahoe's alarming loss of clarity over the past three decades.

Visibility in the lake once reached down as far as 160 feet, the clearest waters in the world prior to logging and mining that followed the Comstock lode in the 1860s.

Scientists say visibility now stands at about 60 feet, and it's still getting worse.

Two members of the Beach Boys musical group joined state officials Friday in welcoming the new restrictions.

"We want to be in the water. We want to have fun, fun, fun, but we don't want to pollute," said Bruce Johnson, who lives in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Mike Love, a longtime resident of the Tahoe area, said a lot has changed since their band wrote songs about "speeding cars - gas-guzzling behemoths in the old days.

"Now we're trying to do our part to help ... This is a step in evolution and a step to preserve one of the most beautiful places in the world," he said.

The Tahoe ordinance prohibits most all watercraft powered by two-stroke engines, with a few exceptions.

Polaris Industries in April unveiled a new model which currently is the only craft available allowed on the lake indefinitely. Polaris officials were on hand Friday to donate the use of four new models for local law enforcement agencies at the lake. An Arctic Cat Tigershark is supposed to be available soon that also will satisfy all of TRPA's requirements.

Other crafts, a Bombardier Sea-Doo and a Yamaha model, meet certain requirements allowing them to have a three-year exemption.

Besides personal watercraft, there are other exemptions. Sailboats utilizing two-stroke engines as auxiliary power and watercraft powered by two-stroke engines rated at 10 horsepower or less are exempt for three years.