On Thursday, February 1 at 8:20 AM, Vermont’s Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules (LCAR) will be hearing testimony from 21 witnesses regarding the Final Rule of the Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) regulating the use of wake boats on Vermont’s inland lakes and ponds. LCAR will then decide if the ANR correctly followed the required statutory petition process. The hearing will last only one hour, but be resumed the following week, February 8, at 8:00 AM. This is to allow time for the remaining speakers to be heard. It is uncertain whether additional LCAR meetings will be needed.
The agenda for the Thursday, February 1 LCAR meeting can be found at: https://legislature.vermont.gov/committee/agenda/2024/5915. Presentation documents and handouts for all speakers can be found at: Documents & Handouts | Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules (LCAR) (vermont.gov).
Our goal at this point is to enable LCAR to render its decision quickly. We have concluded that the risks of delaying the ANR’s rule until possibly next year — or beyond — are outweighed by the benefits of having a rule in place for this summer, which we believe is critical. To facilitate a speedy LCAR decision, RWVL will have only 2 speakers. Links to their presentations are as follows:
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We know that some of our supporters would have us ask LCAR to reject ANR’s rule, hoping that a better outcome could be negotiated. This is a possible outcome depending on what LCAR decides. Regardless of what LCAR decides, RWVL is committed to continuing its efforts going forward post-LCAR to put a strong rule in place. We will need the support of you and others as we seek to better manage the adverse impacts of wake boating (see photos above).
We ask you to not attend the LCAR meeting in person. The meeting room is small and the time for public input on the rule itself has passed. This meeting will begin at 8:00 am on Thursday, but with the Wake boat portion beginning at 8:20 AM. You may watch the meeting via the online YouTube feed by clicking on the “Live” button in this link and then clicking on the Feb 1 LCAR meeting: http://www.youtube.com/@VTLegJointCommittees. Afterward, please share your comments and impressions of the LCAR meeting by sending an email to info@responsiblewakes.org.
Our fingers crossed for achieving a good outcome by avoiding a significant delay in LCAR’s decision-making process. We are hopeful in seeing a rule regulating wake boats in place this summer.