Marine Board Revises Motor Restriction On Elk, Sixes Rivers

The Oregon State Marine Board has adopted regulations allowing smaller outboard motors on the Elk River and electric motors on the Sixes River. The ruling negates the Board’s January ban on all motorboats on these two popular southwest Oregon rivers.

The new rule is a compromise solution to reduce conflict between different types of boaters and local landowners. The ruling will continue to prohibit jet-pump driven boats from the rivers, but still allows limited motorboat access.

The decision came during the Thursday, March 22, Marine Board meeting in Salem. The board also approved several boating facility grants and adopted new rules allowing marine patrol officers to use a new type of alcohol breath tester in the ongoing fight against Boating Under the Influence of Intoxicants.

Lower Elk Re-opens To Motorboats

The Board’s January decision to close the Elk and Sixes rivers to motorboats was driven by an April 2000 petition from the Sixes River Alliance. The motor prohibition satisfied some boaters but drew a quick response from many others. The Board received 59 written comments on the ruling this month, many asking that compromise regulations be considered. Opinions on what that compromise should be were many and varied, but most agreed that jet-pump driven motors should remain prohibited on the two rivers. Special attention was paid to the lower three-mile tidewater section of Elk River, which offers good fishing but difficult access for manually powered boats.

New rules are as follows:

• Elk River - Effective April 1: Electric motors are allowed on the entire river, but jet pumps remain prohibited on the entire river; From Ironhead Ramp downstream, propeller-driven outboard motors 25 horsepower or less may be used; From Iron Head Ramp upstream, only persons owning land fronting both sides of the river may, by permit issued by the Marine Board, use a propeller-driven gasoline outboard of 25 horsepower or less.
• Sixes River: Also effective April 1, electric motors will be allowed the entire length of the river. Gasoline or other outboard or inboard motors of any type are prohibited.

New Tool Aims At Intoxicated Boaters

The Board also approved administrative rules allowing use of a new tool in the fight against Boating Under the Influence of Intoxicants (BUII). The tool is a relatively affordable, portable and accurate new-generation alcohol breath tester that can be used by more officers in more places than current products.

Marine Board staff received a recommendation for approval from the Oregon State Police earlier this year to use the new Dreager 7410 EPAS Plus breath-testing instrument for marine use only. The new device is extremely compact – about the size of a small briefcase – and is easily portable. Also, the units cost one-quarter the price of previous units, and can be used in a boat on the water while previous units had to be used on a stable platform or the shore. The Marine Board has purchased 20 of the units to augment the 20 Intoxilizer 1400 instruments currently in use by marine officers.

“This means we’ll have more units in more places to help us be more effective,” says Bill Rydblom, Marine Board Law Enforcement Administrator. Marine Patrol deputies arrested 258 boaters in 2000 using 20 units. With 40 available, Rydblom expects to see an increase in 2001. The Marine Board will train officers on the new instruments in May for use this boating season.

Boating Access Project Grants Approved

The Board approved $600,000 in grants for boating access projects ranging from docks to restrooms to boat ramp parking lots.

This round of grants is the final for the 1999-2001 biennium. In the past two years, the Board has approved 81 projects and provided nearly $3.5 million in Facility Grant Funds and $825,000 in Clean Vessel Act (CVA) funds to build, improve or maintain boating access facilities. CVA funds are used for projects that prevent marine sewage from entering the water.

A brief round-up of some of the newly approved projects follows:

• Lane County - Baker Bay Flush Restroom. Board approved $45,000. The total cost is $182,500. This project replaces an old, existing restroom at Dorena Reservoir.
• City of North Bend - California Street Parking. Board approved $42,000. The total cost is $51,988. Funds will be used to pave the recently completed gravel parking area at the new ramp and floats located at the end of California Street on Coos Bay. Project will provide 21 boat trailer spaces.
• City of Coquille - Transient tie-up at Sturdivant Park. Board approved $117,000. Total project cost is $129,500. Funds will be used to replace a transient tie-up on the Coquille River that was removed two years ago for safety reasons.
• City of West Linn - Bernert Landing Parking Improvements. Board approved $90,000 to overlay the existing parking area at Willamette Park.
• Clackamas County - Boones Ferry Gravel Parking Area. Board approved $90,000 to develop a gravel parking area near the Boones Ferry boating facility on the Willamette River. Expanded parking area will serve 80 boat trailers.
• Linn County - Sunnyside Park transient tie-up on Foster Reservoir. Board approved $60,000 to replace the existing tie-up, which is over 30 years old and very worn.
• Clatsop County - Cullaby Lake Park. Board approved $125,000. Total project cost is $130,000 to overlay the existing parking area. This is the final phase of construction at this facility.
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