FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. — In response to the anticipated, but reportedly temporary, closure of several National Recreation Areas and National Seashores Sunday, September 15, 2002, the American Watercraft Association will hold a pro-personal watercraft rally and ceremonial "last ride" at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area on Saturday, September 14.

The rally, to be held at the Hemenway Harbor launch ramp and beach starting at 11 a.m, Saturday, September 14, one day before the anticipated ban on personal watercraft takes effect, will highlight both the inefficiencies of the National Park Service's rulemaking process and the stranglehold that anti-boating groups have over the lives of Americans in the United States.

"The managers at Lake Mead did their job," said Stephan Andranian, Government Affairs manager for the AWA. "They completed the required environmental studies, and concluded that personal watercraft should be allowed at Lake Mead. However, higher-level bureaucrats did not move in an efficient manner to execute on those studies, which have been bottled up in district offices for months."

In addition to local recommendations that the boats be allowed, the Department of the Interior asked the Bluewater Network, a San Francisco-based group that opposes personal watercraft in these and other areas, for an extension to the court-ordered mandate that the Recreation Areas be shut down September 15, 2002. The organization denied that request, even though the studies it requested were completed.

"There is no reason that personal watercraft owners should not be able to use Lake Mead, Lake Powell, and other National Recreation Areas and Seashores on September 15," said. "If the National Park Service had put 100 percent into getting the rules completed, we wouldn't be having this rally."

Sixteen National Recreation Areas and Seashores are currently in the process of developing rules for continued personal watercraft access. The rulemaking procedure includes an environmental analysis of personal watercraft impacts on the resources of each individual unit. To date, every National Recreation Area and Seashore that has finished its environmental assessment or environmental impact report has recommended that personal watercraft use be included in the many activities that are permitted in such parks.

"We are outraged that not one of the sixteen Recreation Areas and Seashores have completed the rulemaking process within the two-year time period agreed to by the National Park Service," said Andranian. "Their inattention to this issue will end up costing people their jobs because of the impact these bans will have on local economies."