A boat sticker program designed to increase safety and enforcement on Candlewood Lake is dead in the water for this legislative year, following a refusal by the General Assembly's Environment Committee to push the bill forward in the face of opposition to enabling legislation by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
"We had discussions with the [Candlewood Lake] Authority about it," said Dennis Schain, speaking for the DEP. "We are willing to continue discussing the idea and see if there is an approach that is workable. We do have longstanding concerns about whether we want boaters to have a specific sticker for a specific body of water," he said.
"'Well, what about the next lake?'" he imagined groups who oversee other Connecticut lakes asking. "Where does that lead us to?" he said, noting that, at present, the state requires boat registration and also safety programs for those who own them. The boat sticker program the Candlewood Lake Authority had developed would have generated revenues to increase marine patrol man-hours on the lake by 50 percent, with the fees also allocated for equipment repair and the costs of fuel, according to CLA executive director Larry Marsicano.
Preliminary fees for boating on the heavily used lake, which has become a destination point for boaters from out of state, would have consisted of a $50 annual fee for Connecticut residents and $100 for out-of-state boaters. A temporary fee of $20 or $30 would also have become part of the scheme. Motorized vessels less than 19.5 feet in length, canoes and kayaks were exempt from the program. The legislation that died last week in the Environment Committee would have empowered the DEP to write a regulation establishing the boat sticker program, which Mr. Marsicano had hoped could go into effect not this season but the next.
"There's good data out there [that] we have more accidents," he had said of public safety on the lake. "We have more boats involved in incidents out there than any other lake in the state. We're a destination spot for people in the tri-state area. We're a destination for prize-fishing programs. A large number of people visit the lake. A lot of homeowners have their own boat. We're a high level usage lake." He noted that studies have measured the carrying capacity of a boat, with a number of them equating 10 acres to each operating boat. Candlewood Lake, he said, has 5,000 acres where boats can operate, which means it can accommodate 500 boats. ome of the work completed on the lake's recreational issues has confirmed that 500 boats are out on the lake on weekends and holidays, he said.
"I would suggest we get [the 500 boats] more often than not," the executive director had affirmed.
Mr. Schain said the DEP understands that Candlewood Lake is the largest in the state and that it attracts large numbers of boaters. "There are special circumstances," he said. He noted that, in the past few years, the DEP had made what he termed a major commitment to increasing DEP patrols on the lake. "That's something we will continue to discuss with them-to see what the needed level of patrols are, and how we can meet their needs. It's an ongoing dialogue with an eye toward putting additional steps in place for the upcoming season. It's getting to spring, and if there's more that should or could be done for this season we'd like to do it. We'll keep talking to them about it," Mr. Schain said.
"We have never been comfortable ... about setting a precedent that would require boaters to have special stickers for specific bodies of water," he affirmed. "The real issue here is enforcement of state boating rules and regulations." In testimony submitted to a public hearing before the Environment Committee, DEP Commissioner Gina McCarthy acknowledged that the matter of a boat sticker fee was raised in 2003 as a mechanism to provide funding for additional law enforcement on the lake.
"There are over 5,000 boats docked or moored on Candlewood Lake and 200 spaces at state launch facilities," she acknowledged. However, she noted that patrol hours on the lake have increased three- and four-fold since 2003.
"The department has concerns with the bill as written, because several of the key components do not align with what was discussed in 2003," she said. "For example, the proposed fees are much higher and the CLA would be given authorization to unilaterally impose future fee increases.
"Continued discussions are needed to fully understand the need for the program and to ensure that it is fair and equitable for all users," the commissioner said.
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