October 13, 2022 at 2:39 p.m.
NRB members call for action on wake boat issue
DNR secretary asks for full presentation to board
NRB members call for action on wake boat issue
Several concerned citizens mentioned the wake issue during the Sept. 28 NRB meeting including Jeff Meessmann.
Meessmann spoke about the increasing activity of wake boats on lakes where he serves as a Clean Boats Clean Waters and Citizen Lake Monitoring volunteer. These boats generate hazardous wakes with their bow up and stern down, the propellers at a 40 degree angle, he said. He said the angle of the props scours the bottom of the lake and the hazardous wakes cause safety issues. A "hazardous wake" is defined as a wake that is intentionally magnified through the use of ballast, design features, or operational procedures, to amplify wave height and some wakes can reach four feet in height, he added.
These boats can be loaded with up to 5,000 pounds of water and have 350-600 horsepower motors powering them, Meessmann said. Without a full ballast, many of these boats top 6,000 pounds, meaning a 10,000 pound boat once the water is added. His concern is finding lakes deep enough and wide enough for these boats. Many Northwoods lakes are not large enough to avoid damage to shorelines, bottom habitat and safety concerns, he alleged.
He asked the NRB to consider creating a regulation to require these boats to operate 700 feet from docks, rafts, piers and other watercraft. In addition, such boats should be prohibited from operating in less than 20 feet of water, he argued. He also asked that wake boats not be allowed to operate on lakes less than 1,500 acres in size.
Meessmann also expressed concerns about invasive species. Because the ballasts of these boats are not created to be fully drained when moving from one lake to another, the risk of spreading invasive species is quite high, he alleged. They have closed systems that cannot be inspected by those who volunteer for Clean Boats Clean Waters, he added.
He spoke about a recent study looking at 23 wake boats, noting that 13 of those boats had 13 gallons of water onboard when inspected. Another two boats held 20 gallons of water. In all, 13 families of zooplankton were found in the ballast water of these boats and two had invasive mussel larvae.
When Meessmann finished with his presentation, Department of Natural Resources (DNR) secretary Preston Cole asked for input from law enforcement. Warden Peter Wetzel spoke first, noting that the state has a statute requiring boats to be at slow no wake within 100 feet of the shoreline. In cases where he has been involved with complaints regarding wake boats, the boats had been in compliance with that, he added. As far as an offense that would be ticketable by a warden, he said, a hazardous wake must be a public safety threat, which holds a much higher standard that a single complainant.
Warden Matt O'Brien offered to conduct a full informational presentation on the matter. He said there is an aquatic management component, a mechanical dredging component and an ancillary safety piece that all factor into the equation. A full presentation may help provide a path forward, he said.
Board member Fred Prehn said he felt it is a public safety issue. With the angle at which the boats operate, drivers cannot see ahead of them, he said.
He said he has experienced this himself many times on the Eagle River Chain.
"I'm not sure how to navigate this," he said. "No pun intended. I'm not sure it's legislative, but I think it's within the realm of the DNR to do some regulation in this area. We have an obligation to protect safety, waterway, aquatic plants, sediment, erosion control, and potential conflict of human life. But I'm not sure how to do that."
Prehn said he wanted to be able to make a determination as to whether it was within the realm of the board and the DNR to create regulations.
"The public needs to know that focus of this issue is on this board or administration, or is it not?" Prehn added. "If it's not, they need to giddy up and do what they've got to do in Madison at the capitol. The sooner we can do that, the better it is for the people who are concerned by this.
John Richter of the Plum Lake Association and the Wisconsin Shoreline Alliance also spoke on the wake boat issue. He told several tales of waterskiers, paddle boarders and others who he claimed were injured or dislodged from their crafts by these large wakes.
"When you have a fallen or injured person in the water, the last thing you're doing is looking for boat numbers," he told the board.
Richter said Plum Lake saw its first wake boat in 2019 and since then the number had grown to six. This number does not include the transient boats that come and go from the lake, he added.
Richter was concerned about invasive species as Plum Lake has the invasive spiny waterflea. Boats leaving Plum Lake with water in their ballast tanks could easily be transporting that invasive species to the next lake into which it is launched, he alleged.
He also spoke about other ecological effects, such as a loon nest on the lake that had been washed out by large wakes for the last four years.
"Action is urgently needed to regulate this threat to our northern lakes and to protect the economy of the north, which is contingent on the health of our lakes," he said. "Your lake stewards from our lakes need your help now to prevent irreversible damage to our lakes and protect other lake users."
Richter said Carroll University and several others have done studies about the effects of wake boats. Their recommendation for wake boat operation, at the current size of boats, is that a lake should be 1,500 acres with a 700 foot buffer zone from shorelines and other users. They also recommended these boats not operate in less than 25 feet of water.
With boats getting bigger and having more horsepower that recommendation will likely increase, Richter said. When looking at a lake such as Big St. Germain, which meets the 1,500 acre minimum, that lake is only 35 feet deep, with much of it being less than 25 feet in depth. If that recommendation went to 30 feet, which he felt was likely, a 1,500 acre minimum may not be enough to protect a lake, he explained.
Jim Olson of Vilas County asked the board to create a scope statement and possibly even draft an emergency rule regarding wake boats that would look to protect the lakes and the people who use them. While he said he understood that process would take time, it would take less time than to go through the Wisconsin Conservation Congress with a resolution, a track on which he had already started.
"I don't know whether the request for the emergency regulation is even needed," said Prehn. "Ballast is clear. Everyone is concentrating on fishing boats and live wells. It's no difference if it's ballast in a surf boat."
The state must enforce the regulation already on the books, he noted.
"There is a proof component of that," warden O'Brien said. "Which is I need to prove to our standard, to a preponderance of an evidence at court, that there's water in the tank. Now there's a lot of things we practically know that might be happening, but to actually document that and be able to say that is always a challenge. You can't just show up at court and say I know these boats tend to have it and these are the characteristics."
Most boating regulation are likely 50 years old, he added, noting that technology is far out-pacing regulation.
When most boat regulations were put into practice, a 10,000 pound, 600 horsepower boat was not "a thing." He felt manufacturers would need to be part of the conversation as well. He said there may also need to be some statutory changes and some "give and take" involved in the resolution of the multi-faceted challenge.
"Its unacceptable to sit here in Wisconsin, for the next three years in northern Wisconsin, and have these boats go from lake to lake," Prehn said. "These lakes aren't big. Six hundred acres, 800 acres, 300 acres. These boats are going in all the lakes you can't believe. Are we going to wait three years and have all these ballasts - It only takes one ballast to pump out at Plum Lake or Trout Lake up there and dump that fly [spiny waterflea] in these other lakes. One time. If we have existing regulations and statutory authority, we need to enforce it." He said just on the issue of invasive species alone, the boats are made not to dump all of their ballast water and he felt that alone should be all of the proof needed to prosecute successfully.
Secretary Cole said the presentation to the board should shine a clear light on the many facets of the issue and help board members find a way forward.
"It's a ballast water issue, an invasive species issue, costs associated with problems on lakes," Cole said. "It will be a robust presentation so then this board can act accordingly."
Beckie Gaskill may be reached via email at [email protected].
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