Boaters Petition National Park Service in Support of Personal Watercraft Currently, the National Park Service is developing rules to allow PWC owners to access 16 National Recreation Areas and National Seashores. However, because of a lawsuit brought by the San Francisco-based anti-boating group Bluewater Network, the National Park Service is now forced to develop special rules to allow for continued PWC access by September 15 of this year. In some National Recreation Areas and Seashores, the deadline of April 22 has already passed, banning PWC until these new rules can be put into place. Earlier this year, the National Park Service itself requested a two-year extension in the court settlement in order to give them enough time to adopt the rules that are now being developed. In the written request, the tragic events of September 11, 2001, were cited by the National Park Service as a major reason that they could not complete the required environmental assessments and special rulemaking by the court ordered deadline. "We support the National Park Service's efforts in reopening some of the National Recreation Areas and Seashore. It is deplorable that anti-boating groups like Bluewater Network are trying to scuttle the rulemaking process," said Stephan Andranian, Government Affairs Manager for the American Watercraft Association. At the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, studies showed that PWC did not affect the environment in any significantly different way than other, "conventional" motorboats. In their proposed PWC rule, they chose to regulate all watercraft in specific areas of the lake, while leaving 98% of the water open to all recreational boats, including PWC. "PWC owners invited the environmental assessments, and they are showing that PWC are not different from other boats. Now if we can just expedite the rulemaking process to reflect the findings of these studies…" concluded Andranian. # # # Stephan Andranian Government Affairs Manager American Watercraft Association Ph: (949) 598-5860, ext. 123 Fax:(949) 598-5872 E-Mail: stephan@watercraftassociation.com www.watercraftassociation.com