Watercraft bill survives attacks

lakes and impose a minimum age for operating them withstood several attempts to scuttle it Thursday and faced final legislative votes.

“People are looking at us to do something,” Rep. Matthew Dunlap said during a House debate that capped marathon legislative discussion on the bill. “To do nothing would be the greatest mistake we could make.”

Dunlap, D-Old Town, said he had received 800 pieces of correspondence and 350 phonecalls – many from out of state – on the legislation.

The House followed the Senate’s lead and approved the comprehensive measure, but a minor difference between the House and Senate versions would need to be ironed out before the bill could be enacted.

The Senate sank a proposal to ban the noisy water scooters, better known by the trade name Jet Skis, on the state’s second-largest lake, Sebago.

The House later batted down several other amendments, which were also aimed at weakening or killing the bill.

As the bill now stands, it would ban the jet-powered watercraft on more than 240 pristine lakes and ponds in Maine’s unorganized territory and raise the minimum age for operators to 16.

It would require businesses that rent personal watercraft to pay $25 registration fees and provide instructions on how to operate them properly. The bill also sets a process for lakeside towns to recommend local Jet Ski controls through legislative action.

The House and Senate remained divided only on a Senate-approved provision adding Long Pond on Mount Desert Island to the list of waters where the ban would be in effect.