This commentary is by John Dillon of Middlesex, a former journalist whose work focused on environment and energy issues.
Vermont’s Department of Environmental Conservation wants input on a potential rule that would regulate where and how wake boats can be used on the state’s waterways.
If you care about water quality and want to keep lakes safe for paddlers, sailors, swimmers and other users, it’s time to make your voice heard.
Wakes boats are designed specifically to surf behind. Heavy ballast tanks keep the propeller pointed deep in the water. These boats cruise low, slow and throw a 3-to-4-foot wave. They’re also getting bigger, heavier and more expensive. New models range from roughly $100,000 to $200,000.
Despite this cost of entry, wake boats are increasingly popular and may soon come to a lake or pond near you. Opponents are now speaking out about their serious impacts on public safety and water quality. The state has proposed some regulation but it doesn’t go nearly far enough.
Consider the tens of thousands of people who swim, sail and paddle on our public waters — and were doing so long before this wave-making machinery arrived. Three-foot waves can easily capsize canoes or kayaks. Children or older folk are especially at risk. A lifelong paddler I know was swamped by a wake boat on Waterbury Reservoir. Wake boats, he says, won’t just limit his use of public waters; they’ll keep him off his favorite lakes completely by making them unsafe and unenjoyable.
The crashing waves also imperil the shoreline “littoral” zone of lakes that serve as biodiverse nurseries for a host of species. Ballast water from wake boats could easily spread invasive species from lake to lake.
Then there’s nutrient pollution. Over the years, I reported many stories on the growing scourge of toxic cyanobacteria blooms. These blooms are fueled by nutrients — primarily phosphorus — and waters heated by climate change. Studies show the prop wash from wake boats disturbs lake sediment down to 20 feet deep, potentially releasing more phosphorus.
Toxic algae forced the city of Burlington to close its beaches 41 times in the summer of 2020. Now you see blooms more frequently on other bodies of water — such as Joe’s Pond — once thought safe from this plague.
Wake boats and their large waves scouring the shoreline would doubtless worsen the very problem we’re spending millions trying to fix.
Vermont’s public waters are held in trust for all to enjoy. So the law gives the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation the scales — known as the “Use of Public Waters Rules” — to balance competing and potentially incompatible uses.
Currently, wake boats are allowed anywhere in Vermont that motorboats are permitted. Last year, a group called Responsible Wakes for Vermont Lakes petitioned the state to restrict wake boat operation to a distance of 1,000 feet from shore. Its proposal would also limit wake boats to 60 contiguous acres or more and in water at least 20 feet deep.
The state responded with a compromise proposal that says wake boats would need to operate 500 feet from shore, in 20-foot depths, and within 50 contiguous acres. The state also wants a “home lake” rule to restrict the boats to one lake, unless the ballast tanks are decontaminated by a state-approved provider.
Under this alternative, wake boats would still be allowed on 31 lakes, including such gems as Lake Caspian, Holland Pond and Lake Seymour.
The proposed regulation falls short of what’s needed. The rules give the Department of Environmental Conservation broad responsibility to protect “normal uses” of public waters. The rules define those uses as those existing in 1993 or earlier. They go on to say the department should “ensure that the natural values of the public waters are fully protected.”
With this charge, the Department of Environmental Conservation should ban wake boats. The state can’t possibly protect natural values and normal, pre-1993 uses and still allow these machines on our waters.
If not a ban, the state should require the 1,000-foot buffer between wake boats and shore, as requested by the citizens’ petition.
I know the state must also try to balance recreational use. But it’s clear this one activity favored by the few precludes numerous others treasured by the many.
Note: The state has scheduled a public meeting on the proposed rules for Feb. 15 at 5:30 p.m. in Greensboro’s Highland Center for the Performing Arts. A link to attend and comment by video is available here.