NEWS

From The Upper Keys Reporter

PWC supporters file petition to end ban in Biscayne Bay Ban
based on water quality

BY ANN HENSON, Staff Writer

A coalition focused on opening national parks to personal watercraft plans to pressure the government to study water quality effects since the vessels were banned in 1998.

The coalition announced this week that it is filing a formal petition with the U.S. Department of the Interior in an effort to jumpstart the process of opening the park.
Brian Berry, spokesman for the coalition, said that the ban was "based on allegations that watercraft were negative to the environment."

Since the ban, personal watercraft (PWC) manufacturers have made technological advancements that make the PWC "one of the most environmentally friendly motorized vessels on the water," he said.

In 2002, a few miles down the shoreline, the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary looked at banning the vessels in sanctuary waters, which surround the Keys.
But months before the movement began, the Florida Legislation passed a law that prohibited discriminating against a particular type of watercraft.

So, the sanctuary passed a rule that prohibits any vessel from operating at more than idle speed within 100 yards of residential shores, stationary vessels and navigational aids marking reefs.

The PWC ban in Biscayne Bay National Park was used as a basis to ban PWCs from sanctuary waters.
Following the national park ban, officials said they would monitor water quality for the next few years.

And, now some national parks have had to reintroduced PWCs to their waters after conducting these environmental assessments.

Berry said that scientists have found that prohibiting PWCs has not affected water quality one way or the other.

"The assessment takes a couple of years," he said.

"I know that 14 [park] units have finished the environmental assessment part and six have completed the rule-making and are now open to PWCs."

Backing the campaign are PWC dealers, PWC owners, the American Watercraft Association and the Blueribbon Coalition, whose mission is to preserve natural resources for the public instead of from the public.

The PWC lobby was stymied in 2002, four years after the ban went into effect, when a Texas district court judge confirmed that the National Park Service could single out and ban PWCs from its waters.

The American Watercraft Association and the personal watercraft industry sued the director of the National Park Service and Gale A. Norton, who heads the Department of Interior.

Judge John Rainey of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas upheld the park service's closure of 13 parks.

The sanctuary has wrestled with banning PWCs three times.

During the most recent effort, also in 2002, the Sanctuary Advisory Council developed a list of options ranging from doing nothing to a total ban.

Many on the council favored a total ban.

However, Florida is a partner in managing the sanctuary and the no-discrimination law made a ban complicated.

Sanctuary Superintendent Billy Causey said, "If our state partner says no and we say yes, what kind of partnership is that?"

Cheva Heck, spokeswoman for the sanctuary, said the issue has not surfaced in the last two years.

"We've helped communities when they want to mark their shorelines" at the 100-foot idle-speed zone, she said.

The sanctuary also enforces existing rules, she said. And the PWC industry initiated educational programs for PWC operators.

Ann Henson covers state and Monroe County government, environment, Key Largo and is the editor of The Reporter's website. She can be reached at 852-3216 or by e-mail at amhenson@keysreporter.com