This is from The Log, So Cal boating newspaper. Yes folks it means what that it says.  If in California, you will have to be fully encapsulated or replaced your keel with iron or concrete as that idiot mentions.  And you 36IA members outside California, don't feel too smug if your boat is in, say, Texas or Florida.  Boneheaded petty bureaucrat regulators share ideas all the time and the more stupid, the better it seems.  Your time may be coming soon enough!
 
 
California Department of Toxic Substances Proposes “Lead-free” Boating
Posted: 3/30/16
 
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By: Jessica Lepus   -    Sacramento as reported in The Log back in January, the California Department of Toxic Substances (CDTS) recently took issue with lead fishing weights and was promptly taken to task by the American Sportfishing Association president and CEO Mike Nussman.
 
Perhaps spurred on by the Flint Michigan lead contamination disaster, the CDTS is taking another look at alleged contamination in California waters.  More ominously for boaters, a rather nondescript notice was recently posted on the CDTS as website announcing several public hearings to be held next month in Laguna Beach, Santa Barbara, and Lake Tahoe.  The hearings are a prerequisite to the CDTS’s adoption of new “rules” which according to the website, “will regulate, restrict, and ultimately eliminate the deliberate introduction of lead and other heavy metals into the waters of this State.”  The new regulations will, according to the website, make it a civil offense to knowingly introduce Lead and other heavy metals into State waters.  Violators may be subject to civil fine of up to $25,000 per day, it adds. 
 
In telephone interview with The Log, Acting Deputy Director of Toxic Substances Regulation, Jiang Qing said “The proposed rules do not make individual exceptions for specific uses.  We have not seen the need to make exceptions because there are simply no safe levels of lead exposure.” When asked if the proposed rules would apply to vessels with underwater lead keels Queen replied I don't see why not given that safe alternative to lead do exist.”  When advised that there are thousands of boats in California with lead keels, Qing replied “That's one of the issues we will have to look at and we will invite representatives from the marine industry and boaters to fully participate in the rulemaking process” she said.
 
“I think it's crazy that a boat owner would be liable for a huge find the minute they launched their boats.” says Rep. Eugene Ivanov (R, Murrieta).  We intend to make sure bureaucrats do not take these serious issues to the extreme” said Ivanov.  He said he has written to the Board of Toxic Substances Control and has “urged them to fully consider the impact of the proposed regulations on the marine industry and on individual voters.”