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John Stark, The Bellingham Herald, 9/18/03

Recommendations to gradually eliminate the dirtiest boat motors from Lake Whatcom got a mixed reception Wednesday at a joint meeting of the Bellingham and Whatcom County councils and Water District No. 10 commissioners.

The proposed new rules for motorboats were just one part of a 16-page report delivered to the elected officials earlier this week by the Motorized Watercraft Citizens Advisory Committee, a group jointly appointed by the Lake Whatcom Management Committee consisting of Mayor Mark Asmundson, County Executive Pete Kremen and Water District No. 10 manager Jim Neher.

The report drew objections from some boaters at Wednesday's meeting, while also failing to please activists who would like all motorboats banned from a lake that provides the drinking water for about 85,000 county residents.

In its report, the committee singled out carbureted two-stroke outboard engines because they are said to spew 25 percent to 30 percent of their fuel consumption into the water unburned as they operate. The committee recommended that the city and county councils approve an ordinance banning such engines of greater than 10 horsepower effective Jan. 1, 2009, and smaller ones as of Jan. 1, 2012.

Fuel-injected two-cycle engines, four-stroke engines and inboards would not be affected.

Bob Harriman, member of a fishers' group called Borderline Bassin Contenders, asked why boats were being singled out when lakes with no motorboats have also been shown to contain pollutants. He also said the eventual ban on two-cycle carbureted engines was almost meaningless.

"Probably less than 1 percent of the traffic out there is two-stroke carbureted," he said. "You're trying to fix something that doesn't need to be fixed."

Water skier Don Shepherd said he and a number of other people moved their sport to Lake Whatcom in the early 1970s after the Whatcom County Council heeded complaints from fishers and banned powerboats from Silver Lake. He too said it wasn't fair to blame boaters for lake water quality problems.

"This is targeting one lone group that we know is a minority in our county," he said.

Some boaters in the audience said they feared that banning the two-cycle carbureted outboards could be the first step to the sweeping boat ban that some people are demanding.

County Council member Laurie Caskey-Schreiber said she didn't see the citizen committee heading in that direction. She noted that the committee also recommends establishment of a fueling station for boats at Bloedel Donovan Park, to eliminate the fuel spills that can result now when boaters carry extra fuel in gas cans and fuel up themselves on the lake.

Asmundson said the three-man lake management committee would study the committee's work before making recommendations to the city and county councils, which would then hold public hearings before taking action.

A second controversy concerned the makeup of the citizens' advisory committee. When County Council member Barbara Brenner and some in the audience asked for the names of the committee members, Asmundson at first said the names were listed in the report. When he was informed that they were not, he argued that committee members were entitled to some privacy because they were taking up such a contentious issue.

The public part of the regulatory process will not begin until elected officials take up the matter, Asmundson said, as Brenner shook her head in disagreement.

Asmundson said most members of the committee live on the lake, and most are boaters themselves, but no other information on their identity was forthcoming on Wednesday.

Reach John Stark at 715-2274 or john.stark@bellinghamherald.com.

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