Lawmakers may decide whether to ban jumbo boats on Candlewood Lake

HARTFORD -- The move to regulate the size of boats on Candlewood Lake could become a state law rather an environmental regulation.

Amey Marrella, commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, made that recommendation Monday at a hearing before the General Assembly's Environment Committee.

The reason for this is simple, according to DEP spokesman Dennis Schain.

"It's largely a matter of speed," Schain said Monday -- not boat speed but legislation speed.

If the General Assembly approves the ban on big boats as a matter of state law, Schain said, the law could take effect as soon as this year.

However, if the ban were to be a matter of DEP regulation, the bill's language would have to go through a series of regulatory reviews that can take a year or more to complete.

"It's timing,'' Schain said. "If it's a state statute, it could go into effect at the date of its passage.''

Rep. Clark Chapin, R-New Milford, the ranking House member of the Environment Committee, agreed with Schain.

The regulatory route, which must follow the Uniform Administrative Procedures Act, provides a rigorous procedure for the measures in a bill to become part of state regulations, including hearings and consideration by the legislature's Regulations Review Committee.

Writing language into state statutes does not require following those steps.

But, Chapin said, the question of regulating boat size on Candlewood has been discussed at length in the five communities that border the lake.

The bill up for consideration Monday is a follow-up to legislation Rep. Mary Ann Carson, R-New Fairfield, introduced last year.

"It's not like we're trying to pass this in the dead of night,'' Chapin said.

Carson said to make the bill a state statute, it will have to have detailed language on fines and penalties for breaking the law, as well as language about who will enforce it.

All that will have to be completed by May, when the legislative session ends.

"I think it can be done,'' she said. "We've got a couple of months.''

However, she said, the deadline could end up stymieing the effort.

"If we can't (meet it), we'll have to start all over next year."

The DEP and town leaders agreed this year to introduce legislation that would forbid boats on Candlewood Lake that are 26 feet long or longer.

Boats that big -- or bigger -- that already cruise the lake would be grandfathered into the bill, but newer models would be banned.

Testifying before the Environment Committee on Monday, Larry Marsicano, executive director of the Candlewood Lake Authority, acknowledged DEP surveys show only about 110 of the 4,301 motorized boats on the lake are 26 feet long or longer.

"It's not that much,'' he said. "But it's a trend.''

What the authority sees, Marsicano said, is that the number of jumbo boats on the lake is growing. In many ways, the trend becomes self-perpetuating.

"If you're in a boat that gets swamped by a bigger boat four or five times over the seasons, your next boat is going to be larger,'' he said.

Marsicano said at the hearing that banning large boats is a small step in regulating boat traffic on Candlewood, which on busy days can overload the lake. It's been difficult to get state or federal agencies, and the lake's owner, FirstLight Power Resources, to address the recreational pressures on the lake.

"We're desperate for anything that will help,'' Marsicano said after the hearing.

Contact Robert Miller

at bmiller@newstimes.com

or at 203-731-3345.