Camden man takes on ban of watercraft Constitutionality aim of court case

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BELFAST – A Camden man who wants to overturn the personal-watercraft ban on Liberty’s Lake St. George got his day in court Tuesday, but the judge said the case will likely have to be resolved by the state supreme court.

Mark Haskell, 52, owns a camp on the Waldo County lake. He sought a summons from a warden by using a personal watercraft, in his case, a Seadoo, during the Fourth of July weekend last summer.

“I bought it specifically to challenge this law,” he said of the watercraft, for which he paid $13,000.

With legal bills, Haskell estimates, he has spent nearly $20,000 making his point, he said outside court.

Although a lobbyist for the personal-watercraft industry testified on Haskell’s behalf, Haskell said he has not received any financial or in-kind support from the industry for his challenge.

Haskell argues that the ban is not tied to any environmental or wildlife protection cause, but rather because of the bad behavior of a few who use the vessels.

He also believes the bans are arbitrary.

“It’s hit or miss,” Haskell said, with nearby Lake Quantabacook allowing personal watercraft.

A typical motorboat is louder, and personal watercraft are safer and pollute less, he argued.

Haskell said his Seadoo is powered by a water jet, thereby making it safer than an outboard motor’s propeller for swimmers; users are required by law to wear life jackets; and the operator is tethered to the ignition, so if he or she falls, the vessel automatically shuts off.

Haskell has run a professional photography business for many years in Camden, and is now semiretired.

His motivation to pursue the matter in court came from objection on principle, he said.

“It’s probably because I’m a little pig-headed,” he said. “What’s next? A town banning red pickup trucks?”

Haskell pointed out that two seaplanes regularly land on the lake – creating far more noise than his Seadoo – and in the winter, trucks and snowmobiles can tear up and down the ice at 80 mph.

With a full docket Tuesday, the 5th District Court judge asked Marden at nearby Superior Court to handle the case, acting as a District Court judge for the matter. Haskell had pleaded not guilty late last year, but wants to mount what is known as an affirmative defense, which challenges the validity and constitutionality of the law.

Haskell’s family has owned a cottage on the lake since the early 1960s. Family and friends have enjoyed big and small, fast and slow motorboats on the lake for decades, he said, as well as canoes and kayaks.

When he learned in 2003 that Liberty residents voted at their annual town meeting to recommend banning personal watercraft on Lake St. George, Haskell said, he was incensed. He contacted the town office to register his complaint, then contacted a dozen state legislators.

He was unable to use the camp during summer 2004, but last year decided to push the issue.

On Thursday and Friday of the long weekend he went fishing on the vessel.

“I made sure everyone saw me,” he said.

Then on Saturday, July 3, when the lake was crowded with “hundreds of boats,” Haskell cruised the entire shoreline of the lake. As expected, someone called the Maine Warden Service, and Warden Mark Merrifield issued Haskell a summons.

Haskell said he finds it ironic that wardens sometimes use personal watercraft in patrols.

The ban came when the state Legislature passed a law that allowed municipalities to vote to recommend blocking the use of personal watercraft on large ponds and lakes. If a town or city sought a ban, the state would likely enact it.

Later that year, the Legislature enacted bans on the use of personal watercraft on Lake St. George and many other lakes and ponds, while leaving other lakes and ponds open for the craft in towns where residents did not object.

Marden questioned Haskell during his testimony, asking if personal watercraft users were more likely to start and stop and complete stunts than boat users. Haskell disagreed.

Ralph Pears, a lobbyist from Phippsburg who represents the personal watercraft industry, testified that the craft “tend to be demonized by those who wish to ban them,” and that tests showed newer versions are quieter and less polluting than most boats.

More testimony will be heard in the case in the coming months. The state Attorney General’s Office will defend the constitutionality of the ban at a coming hearing.

“It seems to me, from the get-go, this has been an issue that is begging to be resolved as a matter of law,” Marden said at the close of Tuesday’s hearing.