Bill on Watercraft Heads for Assembly Floor

A controversial measure to ban Jet Skis and other two-stroke engine watercraft from lakes and reservoirs that supply drinking water cleared the Assembly Environmental Safety Committee on a 5-3 vote and now awaits action on the Assembly floor. To gain passage, Assemblywomen Debra Bowen (D-Marina del Rey) amended her bill to exclude newer-model, lower-polluting, fuel-injected two-stroke engines. She also expanded the phase-in of the proposed regulations to 2004 and agreed to work with marine engine manufacturers on a third feature of her bill: a prohibition on the sale of the older, high-polluting two-stroke engines after Jan. 1, 1999. The biggest water agencies in the state joined environmentalists in supporting the bill. Officials from the Metropolitan Water District cited rising levels of MTBEs from two-stroke engine exhaust in Los Angeles County’s Lake Perris and other reservoirs. State officials estimate that there are 200,000 Californians who own boats and watercraft with two-stroke engines.