By Guy Page
A bill introduced Wendesday would allow towns to prohibit “wake” power boats on clear, pristine “oligotrophic” lakes.
H64 would “allow the municipality or municipalities surrounding an oligotrophic lake to prohibit the use of wake boats.” It’s sponsored by Rep. Katherine Sims, Katherine “Kari” Dolan, Tristan Roberts, Lawrence Satcowitz, Amy Sheldon, and Joseph “Chip” Troiano, and Democrats or Democrat/Progressives. It was sent to the Transportation Committee.
Wake boats are high performance power boats pulling wake boarders.
Oligotrophic lakes are most common in cold, sparsely developed regions that are underlain by crystalline igneous, granitic bedrock. Due to their low algal production, these lakes consequently have very clear waters, with high drinking-water quality.
Shadow Lake in Glover, Lake Willoughby in Westmore, Lake Caspian in Greensboro and Lake Seymour in Morgan are among the estimated 20 oligotrophic lakes in Vermont. Lake George, in New York, is also oligotrophic.
Support for protecting olitrophic lakes was summarized in the closing paragraph of a 2018 report by the Department of Environmental Conservation: “These low-nutrient, crystal-clear lakes are the jewels of Vermont – especially prized for their natural beauty and recreational opportunities. It would be a shame to lose them.”