Many favor ban on motors at Waldo Lake

An Oregon State Marine Board official hears testimony on the proposed ban, with a second hearing on Dec. 10

Singing an ode to deep, crystalline waters, Oregonians testified 3-to-1 Monday in favor of banishing gas-powered boats from Waldo Lake.

“You see the pure blue column of water, nothing else. It’s an incredible experience,” said Eugene resident Bob Bumstead at a hearing at Lane County’s public works complex in north Eugene.

Paul Donheffner, director of the Oregon State Marine Board, listened to 11/2 hours of testimony on the proposed ban. It’s a two-sentence, 32-word proposed alteration of state administrative rules that says internal combustion engines would be prohibited year-round on Waldo Lake.

Donheffner will conduct a second hearing on Dec. 10 in Bend. He will then summarize the testimony for the state’s five-member Marine Board, which will consider the ban at its Jan. 14 meeting in Portland.

Earlier this month, Donheffner signed an accord with the U.S. Forest Service agreeing that gas-powered boats would be banned from Waldo Lake and to initiate a rule-making process with the goal of adopting the ban.

Donheffner declined comment Monday on why he signed the accord before the public hearings. “I don’t have anything to say on that,” he said.

It was clear through the evening’s testimony that Waldo Lake — 70 miles east of Eugene — is well-loved by both supporters and proponents of the ban.

Elder residents described decades on the lake; some younger ones described childhood visits, including one man who said he began visiting Waldo when he was 3 months old.

“Like everybody else in this room, apparently,” Bumstead joked at the beginning of his testimony, “I’ve been going up there for 30-plus years.”

A Buddhist priest, Moshe Immerman, compared the lake to enlightenment, calling it a place of profound peace, free of complexity and with luminous clarity.

“Places like that are getting rarer than rare,” he said.

But such “ethereal themes” are not grounds for the Marine Board to ban gas-powered boats from Waldo Lake, said Scott Horngren, attorney for the recently formed group Waldo Lake for Everyone.

There’s an absence of actual impacts attributable to the engines, he said, quoting from a Marine Board document outlining the board’s objections to a ban proposed earlier this decade by the Forest Service.

“There’s no safety, congestion or fish and wildlife protection concerns giving you the authority to act,” Horngren said.

Doug Heiken of the environmental group Oregon Wild acknowledged an absence of attributable impacts. “There’s no law or science that really justifies this. It’s just the right thing to do,” he said.

Opponents of the ban argued that gas motors are necessary for the safety and maneuverability of sailboats. Albany resident Keith Kendrick, president of Waldo Lake for Everyone, said his sailboat capsized in a thunderstorm on Waldo Lake last July. A couple in a second boat with a four-stroke motor rescued him.

“Without their sailboat and motor, there was a good chance I would have died of hypothermia,” he said.

But Eugene Yacht Club member Allan Stults testified that electric motors are adequate for sailboats on Waldo Lake. He said he’s cruised the lake with his electric motor for more than three hours without encountering a problem.

Sailboat owner David Eason of Eugene said a rule limiting the kinds of gas motors to cleaner and quieter four-stroke motors would address a lot of the objections.

Several speakers said canoeists and other paddle boat owners who favor the ban are elitist. They “are the ones who want the lake for their own use at the cost of other people. They feel they must change the lake rules to suit them,” Eason said.

They don’t want to share, Kendrick said. It’s an “intolerant and selfish” attitude, he said.

But Judi Horstmann of Eugene described boorish behavior on the part of motor boaters on Waldo Lake. “Often they’re bringing lots of beer or speeding. They’re looking for a different kind of experience than I’m looking for on Waldo,” she said.